#WarCrimes #PostConflictJustice #Balkans: Youth, Performance Activism and the Politics of Memory

Kurze, Arnaud

doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijw014

Cited by 22 publications

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“…Given our affiliation to a powerful university institution and our privileged position as members of a majority group, research participants judged us to be suitable spokespersons for their community, able to pass on their stories to native Belgian citizens in the host society. The political aims underpinning many participants’ memory practices, such as to challenge impunity in their home country and to restore justice, echo the macro sociopolitical context of ethnic persecution, social injustice, and authoritarian regimes (Brough, Schweitzer, Shakespeare-Finch, Vromans, & King, 2013; Kurze, 2016). Here, the sociopolitical dynamics at stake in participants’ accounts of memory intersect with the researcher’s sociopolitical research ethics (Vandekinderen, Roets, & Van Hove, 2014): Participants’ hope for the research to have a political effect and the transmission of their suffering in the research context may mobilize the researcher’s solidarity.…”

Section: Ethical Reflections On the Multilayered Dimensions Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

2017

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In this article, we explore how narrative accounts of trauma are co-constructed through the interaction between researcher and participant. Using a narrative multiple-case study with Kurdish refugee families, we address how this process takes place, investigating how researcher and participants were engaged in relational, moral, collective, and sociopolitical dimensions of remembering, and how this led to the emergence of particular ethical questions. Case examples indicate that acknowledging the multilayered co-construction of remembering in the research relationship profoundly complicates existing deontological guidelines that predominantly emphasize the researcher's responsibility in sensitively dealing with participants' alleged autobiographical trauma narratives. Instead, our analysis invites qualitative researchers to engage in a continued, context-specific ethical reflection on the potential risks and benefits that are invoked in studies with survivors of collective violence.

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Section: Ethical Reflections On the Multilayered Dimensions Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

2017

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“…Virtual spaces like social media make it possible to engage across territorial borders and create innovative ways for young activists to seek alternative forms of addressing these contentious issues. In his study on the role of youth activism in the post-conflict societies of the former Yugoslavia, Kurze (2016) describes innovative ways and performances of younger generations in which they deal with the violent past, going beyond competing victimhood and rival narratives, aiming to promote public engagement, and an inclusive reconciliation effort. An attempt at inclusive commemoration by civil society organizations, a public performance in the center of Pristina to honor the missing, was roundly criticized by various organizations and the victims' community in Kosovo for including names of Serbs in addition to Albanian victims (Kurze 2016, 14).…”

Section: Politics Of Remembrance and Arenas Of Articulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested war remembrance and ethnopolitical identities in Kosovo

Baliqi¹

2018

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This paper examines the relationship between political power and war remembrance by considering the way war remembrance occurs in a divided society. The purpose of this paper is to explore memory of the violent past and its uses as an ongoing arena of disputes between former adversaries and within ethnopolitical groups pushing their distinct versions of memory. Moreover, this paper examines three key aspects of the politics of remembrance: prevalent narratives, arenas of commemoration, and agencies of war remembrance, based on the case study of Kosovo. The postwar narrative and commemoration in Kosovo have evolved along ethnic lines, perpetuating antagonism and conflicting identities. Memorialization in Kosovo raises serious challenges for comprehensive transitional justice and reconciliation between these ethnic groups. The paper concludes that through appropriate civic education, critical inquiry of commemoration practices, and especially through evidence-based adaptation of the history curriculum, there is a chance to promote a culture of shared memory and to establish inclusive politics of remembrance in Kosovo, as crucial components of reconciliation and peace-building.

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▪ The Bosnian War Crimes Atlas that provides an interactive map of locations of past war crimes, mass graves, and monuments in BiH provides knowledge, including from trials, in an accessible way that prevents manipulation of the past.▪ Research on My Story, which engages in multi-ethnic storytelling by victims, finds a subsequent decline in denial of the out-group's suffering that can also contribute to acknowledgement of crimes committed by the in-group (Oberpfalzerová et al, 2019).▪ Studies of an initiative in BiH that exposed youth to narratives of rescuers who crossed the ethnic divide (moral exemplars) finds that they increased participants' willingness to forgive the out-group's misdeeds and their belief in reconciliation (Čehajić-Clancy & Bilewicz, 2017).Art and culture ▪ Art can make archival and trial documents more accessible, such as Serbian artist Miladinović's ink washed drawings of evidence from ICTY trials (Kerr, 2020).▪ The Historical Museum of BiH, through its various exhibits, including on the theme of Reconciliations, has attracted new audiences and encouraged different forms of engagement with BiH's contested pastbecoming a key site of deliberation .▪ Performance art can become 'strategic confrontation spaces' that push for a reckoning with the past (Kurze, 2016). The Thinking of You installation in Kosovo (with 5,000 donated skirts and dresses hung from washing lines) attempted to confront the stigma surrounding sexual violence.

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confidence: 99%

“…The Thinking of You installation in Kosovo (with 5,000 donated skirts and dresses hung from washing lines) attempted to confront the stigma surrounding sexual violence. It has contributed to a degree of recognition of wartime rape (Krasniqi et al, 2020).▪ Performance art can help to sustain collective memory, such as the wall in Prishtina, with the names of 1,819 ethnic Albanian and Serbian missing persons; and the painting of faded Sarajevo Roses (marks from mortar shells) to make them more visible (Kurze, 2016).▪ The Balkan Diskurs Youth Correspondent Programme (BDYCP) seeks to build the capacities of young artists to produce inclusive counter-narratives. Research finds that it strengthened participants' levels of trust in other ethnic groups, attitudes toward inter-ethnic collaboration and reconciliation, and resolve to work towards durable peace (Fairey and Kerr, 2020).▪ Most Mira, a Prijedor based theatre company, uses humour to discuss contentious topics and portray unifying aspects of life and identity.…”

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Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

Haider¹

2021

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Countries in the Western Balkans have engaged in various transitional justice and reconciliation initiatives to address the legacy of the wars of the 1990s and the deep political and societal divisions that persist. There is growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that in order to foster meaningful change, transitional justice must extend beyond trials (the dominant international mechanism in the region) and be more firmly anchored in affected communities with alternative sites, safe spaces, and modes of engagement. This rapid literature review presents a sample of initiatives, spanning a range of sectors and fields – truth-telling, art and culture, memorialisation, dialogue and education – that have achieved a level of success in contributing to processes of reconciliation, most frequently at the community level. It draws primarily from recent studies, published in the past five years. Much of the literature available centres on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with some examples also drawn from Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

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#WarCrimes #PostConflictJustice #Balkans: Youth, Performance Activism and the Politics of Memory

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

Contested war remembrance and ethnopolitical identities in Kosovo

Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

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