»Against Our Will« Forty Years After: Exploring the Field of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Thursday, 2 July

Public Event
»Against Our Will. Men, Women and Rape« 1975-2015. A Book and it's Impact. A Conversation with Susan Brownmiller
Yuki Tanaka and Gaby Zipfel
Moderation: Regina Mühlhäuser

Friday, 3 July

Conference Introduction
Kirsten Campbell, Regina Mühlhäuser and Gaby Zipfel

Section I: War / Power

Plenary Inputs

• Joanna Bourke, War
• Aaron Belkin, Military Masculinities
• Louise du Toit, Armed Conflict
• Meredeth Turshen, Political Economies

 Moderator: Dubravka Zarkov

Discussion Groups

1. Empowerment / Powerlessness in and of war

• Input: Atreyee Sen, Mahila Aghadi (Women's Front) - Female Agency in India in Overlapping Situations of Conflict / Non-Conflict, Private /Public
• Rapporteur: Júlia Garraio
• Moderator: Claire Andrieu

2. Military Culture

• Input: Yonson Ahn, »Taming Soldiers«. Gender Politics of Japanese Soldiers in Total War
• Rapporteur: Raphaëlle Branche
• Moderator: Valerie Oosterveld

3. War as State of Society

• Input: Na-Young Lee, Post/Colonial Presence of Japanese Military »Comfort Women«
• Rapporteur: Debra Bergoffen
• Moderator: Elma Demir

4. The Normative/ »Normal« vs. the »Abnormal«

• Input: Na-Young Lee, Post/Colonial Presence of Japanese Military »Comfort Women«
• Rapporteur: Debra Bergoffen
• Moderator: Elma Demir

Section II: Violence / Sexuality

Plenary Inputs

• Renée Heberle, Can Masculinity Survive the End of Sexual Violence?
• Jan Phillipp Reemtsma, What is Sexual about Sexual Violence?
• Patricia Viseur Sellers, Legitimacy and Illegitimacy of Sexual Violence
• Gaby Zipfel, What Do Bodies Tell?

 Moderator: Joshua S. Goldstein

Discussion Groups

1. Changing Practices and Ideas of Sexuality and Violence

• Input: Chris Coulter, Female Combatants in Sierra Leone
• Rapporteur: Atreyee Sen
• Moderator: Gorana Mlinarevic

2. Contested Meanings (Perpetrator / Victim)

• Input: Mary Louise Roberts, American GIs in France during WW II
• Rapporteur: Joanna Bourke
• Moderator: Atina Grossmann

3. Un/Speakability

• Input: Pascale Bos, Sexual Violence in Nazi Concentration Camps
• Rapporteur: Elissa Mailänder
• Moderator: Elissa Helms

4. Sexual Imaginaries

• Input: Christa Hämmerle, Ego-Documents of Nurses during WW I
• Rapporteur: Yuki Tanaka
• Moderator: Tuba Inal

Saturday, 4 July

Section III: Sex and Gender / Engendering

Plenary Inputs

• Doris Bergen, The Role of Gender in the Analysis of Violence?
• Dubravka Zarkov, Intersectionality
• Ruth Seifert, The Disappearance of Gender as Analytical Category?
• Kirsten Campbell, The Gender of Justice?

Moderator: Debra Bergoffen

Discussion Groups

1. Aftermath: Gendering Effects of Sexual Violence

• Input: medica mondiale, Narratives of Survivors of Sexual Violence from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Kosovo
• Rapporteur: Lisa Gabriel
• Moderator: Andrea Petö

2. Intersectionality

• Input: Chiseche Mibenge, Witnesses of Sexual Violence in Rwanda and Sierra Leone and International Law
• Rapporteur: Miranda Alison
• Moderator: Mina Watanabe

3. Different Constellations: Male Victims / Female Perpetrators

• Input: Nayanika Mookherjee, The Genital Inspection of Men during the Bangladesh Liberation War. On the History of a Picture
• Rapporteur: Dubravka Zarkov
• Moderator: Jasmina Husanovic

4. Engendering Social Relations

• Input: Debra Bergoffen and Robin May Schott, A Conversation on Sexual Violence during Genocide
• Rapporteur: Louise du Toit
• Moderator: Donna Pankhurst

Round Table
How is Sexual Violence Made In/Visible? A Comparative View

• Yuki Tanaka, The Denial of the »Comfort Women« Issue in Japan
• Regina Mühlhäuser, At all Fronts: Sexual Violence by German, Japanese and Allied Soldiers during WW II
• Ngwarsungu Chiwengo, Human Rights Discourse and Rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Rashida Manjoo, Sexual Violence in War and Peace

 Moderator: Carol Harrington

Results and Perspectives
Elissa Mailänder and Júlia Garraio

For more details:

• Conference Mapping
• Participants