[NextGenderation]
>_________________________________________________________________
>Please Post***Please Distribute
>
>Special Issue of *Women and Performance*
>
>*The Performance of Mass Rape: War, Trauma, and Limit
Phenomena
>
>*Guest Editor: Sel J. Hwahng
>
>From World War II to the present, the vast majority
of armed conflicts
have
>been fought in developing countries. For instance,
according to
Christian
>Scherrer, of 150 conflicts since World War II, 130
have been fought in
>developing countries. During the period from 1985 to
1996, the
proportion
>of armed conflicts in Latin America remained
constant, those in Asia
and
>Europe declined, and the proportion of conflicts in
Africa greatly
>increased. And currently 44% of armed conflicts
occur in Africa.
Women
>and
>children are often disproportionately affected by
armed conflict and
mass
>rape is often systematically used as a weapon of war.
>
>To consider mass rape systems in the context of
"performance",
however, may
>give one pause. Yet human rights discourse often
refers to "actors",
i.e.
>participants, in crises or emergencies within
specific situated
"theaters",
>i.e. places of enactment of significant events or
actions. And
according
>to
>Norma Field, "limit phenomena" are catastrophes
situated at the limits
of
>comprehension, yet they demonstrate the urgency of
confronting
reality.
>
>This special issue will therefore interrogate how
mass rape systems
from
>World War II to the present have been executed,
acknowledged, and
addressed
>through actors performing within theaters of
particular armed
conflicts,
>genocides, massacres, and complex emergencies. Mass
rape systems from
>World
>War II to the present in regions such as Africa,
Latin America, Asia,
and
>Eastern Europe during armed conflict will be
examined. Traumatic
effects
>of
>mass rape systems in both individuals and groups will
also be
interrogated.
>How can focused attention on these limit phenomena
also reveal new
insights
>on gender, race, ethnicity, political economy, social
formations, and
human
>agency?
>
>Mass rape systems during armed conflict may include
but are not
limited to
>the following: Pacific War/World War II (including
the Japanese
military
>sex slavery system and the Rape of Nanjing);
Bangladesh War of
Liberation;
>Vietnam War; Colombian Armed Conflict; Guatemalan
Civil War; Balkan
>Conflicts (including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo);
Angolan Civil
War;
>Mozambican Civil War; Salvadoran Civil War; Myanmar
(formerly Burma)
Civil
>War; Liberian Civil Wars; Rwandan genocide; Sudanese
Civil Wars and
Darfur
>conflict; Congo Wars and Civil War (Democratic
Republic of Congo);
Ugandan
>Armed Conflict; and Sierra Leone Civil War.
>
>This special issue will address some of these
questions:
>
>What are the ritualized aspects and practices of mass
rape systems?
>
>How do mass rape systems perform gender, race,
ethnicity, sexuality,
>nationalism, and religion?
>
>How do colonial, postcolonial, Cold War, and
post-Cold War
geopolitical
>dynamics inform and shape actors within mass rape
systems situated in
>particular theaters of armed conflict?
>
>How does the act of repeatedly bearing witness to
mass rape render
such
>atrocities representable or unrepresentable,
intelligible or
>unintelligible?
>
>How do trauma, terror, and disconnection perform in
mass rape systems?
>
>How are responses to mass rape systems performed
and/or ritualized?
>
>How are the representations of mass rape systems
performed in various
>geopolitical locations, including the U.S.?
>
>How can the investigation of performative aspects of
mass rape systems
>reveal new insights and applications for the
prevention of and
intervention
>in such atrocities?
>
>How can the investigation of performative aspects of
mass rape systems
>reveal new insights and applications for the
treatment of trauma from
such
>atrocities?
>
>Topics may include but are not limited to the
following:
>
>--Child SoldiersFemale and/or Male (including human
trafficking;
rape as
>initiation into military service; coerced sexual
slavery as military
duty;
>and militarized youth cultures)
>
>--Traumatic Effects (including physical and
reproductive injuries from
rape
>and torture; physical and sexual mutilations; social
disintegration;
PTSD
>such as terror, hyperarousal, intrusion,
constriction, and
disconnection;
>silencing; historical trauma; and secondary trauma or
injury)
>
>--Ethnocultural Gender/Sex Systems (including gender
and sexual
>identifications and practices before, during, and
after armed
conflicts;
>and
>new gender, sexual, and/or kinship formations arising
from mass rape
>trauma)
>
>
>--Religion (including religion as justification for
rape; mass rape
across
>religious differences; mass rape within same
religious affiliation;
>Christianization and Islamization of genocide,
massacres, and mass
rape;
>and
>syncretic religious formations in mass rape systems)
>
>--Drug Use (including coerced substance use as
contraception; and
voluntary
>or coerced substance use to facilitate mass rape and
sexual
exploitation)
>
>--HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and
Sexual and
Reproductive
>Health (including HIV/STIs used as weapons of war;
HIV/STI
seroprevalence
>of
>women and children after armed conflict; HIV/STI
seroprevalence of
child
>soldiers; forced pregnancies; forced contraception;
forced abortions;
and
>sexual traumas such as vaginal fistulae and prolapsed
uteri)
>
>--Weapons (including arms trafficking of light
weapons; transnational
>profiteering; Cold War geopolitical nation-state
maneuvers; colonial
>capital
>accumulation; and postcolonial and post-Cold War
crises of failed and
>unraveling states)
>
>--Propaganda (including entrenchment of racial,
ethnic, or religious
>identifications and differences; and gender
disparagement and
>objectification)
>
>--Documentation of Atrocities and Violence (including
journalism;
>interviews; testimonies; case studies; online and
print publishing;
and
>research methodologies)
>
>--Interpretation of Atrocities and Violence
(including interpretive
>performance, theater, film, video, websites, and
fiction; memoirs; and
>reflections by humanitarian workers)
>
>--Demobilization, Demilitarization, Rehabilitation,
Reintegration, and
>Destigmatization of Mass Rape Survivors and Actors
(including
psychosocial,
>biomedical, and indigenous healing modalities; and
capacity building,
best
>practices, and strategies employed by indigenous and
transnational
NGOs)
>
>-- Justice Systems and Grassroots Organizing
(including local,
national,
>and
>international legal claims and actions; indigenous
and transnational
>women's
>groups and organizing; and alternative social
formations and peer
networks
>among survivors)
>
>--Comparative analyses between mass rape systems are
especially
welcome
>
>Submission Guidelines
>
>Please submit manuscripts electronically as email
attachments in
Microsoft
>Word. All emails should be addressed to Sel J.
Hwahng at
>hwahng@??? Jeanne Vaccaro at
>jeanne@???. Please write "Women
and Performance:
>Special Issue" in subject line. Essays should be
double-spaced, with
>1-inch
>margins; articles should not exceed 10,000 words.
Please follow the
Chicago
>Manual of Style, 15th edition. All manuscripts should
be submitted
with a
>500 word abstract. Submissions due no later than
December 15, 2007.
>
>--
>Sel J. Hwahng, Ph.D.
>
>Research Investigator
>The Transgender Project
>Institute for Treatment and Services Research
>National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.
>71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor
>New York, NY 10010
>
>Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Professor
>Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
>Columbia University
>424 Hamilton Hall
>1130 Amsterdam Avenue
>New York, NY 10027
>mail code: 2880
>
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