3 Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity
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Nicole Fox
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of how and why narratives that shape national collective memory of past atrocity neglect gender – a neglect that many find shocking given the ubiquity of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in all recorded wars and mass atrocities. These silences transform into contemporary inequalities as who a society remembers and values as a victim shapes access to resources such as education, financial support, and social capital. I suggest ways for scholars to remedy this oversight in research on gender and cases of contentious memory, and how to integrate a feminist lens in various stages of the research and writing process. This includes oversampling strategies, choosing subjects, qualitative data collection strategies, and approaches to analyzing data, including the analytical vitality of listening to the silences and gaps present in qualitative data. Finally, I address the personal cost for the researcher who adopts a feminist interpretive lens when studying gender and memorialization in the context of mass atrocity and SGBV. Gendered gaps in collective memory projects have significant consequences, including devaluing women’s place in the nation and delimiting their roles in the future (regarding leadership opportunities, decision-making positions, economic prosperities, and governing posts).
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of how and why narratives that shape national collective memory of past atrocity neglect gender – a neglect that many find shocking given the ubiquity of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in all recorded wars and mass atrocities. These silences transform into contemporary inequalities as who a society remembers and values as a victim shapes access to resources such as education, financial support, and social capital. I suggest ways for scholars to remedy this oversight in research on gender and cases of contentious memory, and how to integrate a feminist lens in various stages of the research and writing process. This includes oversampling strategies, choosing subjects, qualitative data collection strategies, and approaches to analyzing data, including the analytical vitality of listening to the silences and gaps present in qualitative data. Finally, I address the personal cost for the researcher who adopts a feminist interpretive lens when studying gender and memorialization in the context of mass atrocity and SGBV. Gendered gaps in collective memory projects have significant consequences, including devaluing women’s place in the nation and delimiting their roles in the future (regarding leadership opportunities, decision-making positions, economic prosperities, and governing posts).
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
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Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
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Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
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Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
-
Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
-
Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
-
Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
