Call for papers/Workshops/Readings/Works in progress/Performances
Life Writing and Human Rights: Genres of Testimony
Centre for Life Narratives, Kingston University, London (CLN) and
University of Minnesota, Departments of Creative Writing and Human Rights
11, 12, 13 July 2011 at Kingston University, London
The stories we tell about our lives and the lives of those around us
leave footprints across history. That history can be of personal,
familial or of widespread political and public importance. Whether
public or private, the telling of and the listening to life narratives
is a concern of increasing importance across a range of disciplines,
professions and practices. Since the end of the First World War,
politics has been increasingly expressed as and measured against norms
categorised as human rights. The individual in relation to the state and
states in their interactions with one another are, in theory and
sometimes also in practice, governed by the legal architecture of human
rights frameworks at national, regional and global levels. These same
processes may come into play in cases of domestic or private human
rights abuses, where the victim must make public their suffering in
order for it to be recognised, and for justice to be done. The bulk of
human rights defence and advocacy is based on making acts open to legal
process. For this to happen we need victims to testify. We need
witnesses to write their autobiographies and memoirs and we need the
media to investigate and report on atrocities. We need perpetrators to
confess. We need the life stories of all those involved.
What is the relationship between these two concerns: Human Rights and
Life Narratives?
The Conference Organisers, Annette Kobak, Patricia Hampl, Eva Hoffman,
Meg Jensen, Philip Spencer and Brian Brivati, developed this event in
collaboration with writers, academics, human rights activists,
historians and filmmakers including Ben Barkow, David Charters,
Catherine Cissé, Rachel Cusk, Jim Dawes, Barbara Frey, Vesna
Goldsworthy, Margaretta Jolly, Rob Lemkin, Max Saunders, and George
Szirtes, many of whom will be participating in the conference itself.
Additional speakers to include Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson
We invite the submission of abstracts and suggestions for potential
papers, workshops, round-table discussions, panels, performances and
works in progress that will add to our understanding of the processes
involved in the shaping of genres of testimony, from the collection of
eyewitness accounts of atrocities to the archiving of propaganda,
letters and ephemera from scenes of human rights abuse, print and
broadcast media coverage before during and after an event, as well as
creative post-conflict reflections voiced in memoirs, poetry,
psychoanalytic narratives, the dramatic and visual arts.
We are looking for work that will debate, among other things, the
following questions
* How do the processes involved in the telling and compiling of
testimony in extreme situations of crimes against humanity affect our
perception of these events and our ability to prevent them?
* How are such events named and changed in that naming?
* How are they described and what happens to that description in the
legal, media, political and emotional life of the event over time?
We would particularly welcome papers, panels, workshops, performances
or readings that:
* Come from and/or explore mainstream or more obscure genres of testimony
* Come from professionals engaged with human rights practice and/or
come from diverse disciplinary perspectives
* Present coherent interdisciplinary and inter-professional
engagements and/or combine formal presentations with elements of
performance and creativity
* Offer conference delegates suggestions for future practical actions
in the prevention of human rights abuses and in the treatment of
perpetrators
ABSTRACTS AND ENQUIRIES
Please provide a 500 word abstract and a brief bio via our webpage by 15
February 2011: www.kingston.ac.uk/fass/activities/conferences/abstracts
Questions regarding CLN may be sent to Dr Meg Jensen, Director:
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