Healing the wounds of war: memories of violence and the making of history in Zimbabwe's most recent past.

How does a society less than two decades after a liberation war which involved large sections of the population come to terms with the memories of violence and war — a war in which there was no clear distinction between insurgent and counter‐insurgent, liberator and oppressor and in which the majority of the casualties can be found among the rural civilian population? This was a predicament not exclusive to Zimbabwe, but one which also applies to Mozambique, South Africa and, more recently, to Rwanda. Since its independence Zimbabwe has been a prime example of successful reconciliation. Ranger has argued that spiritual healing has contributed importantly to coming to terms with the trauma of war through turning violence into history. Here it will be argued that an analysis of the intersections between memories of violence, healing, and history reveals a twofold process. Social healing is made possible by a shift from conviction and compensation to revealing without convicting. At the same time healing provides an arena for communities in which competing and contesting memories of violence are renegotiated. Through these processes sense is being made of the past; history is being made.

The decomposition of some RDX and HMX based materials in the one dimensional time to explosion apparatus. Part 2. Estimating the violence of the cook-off event

Various methods of assessment have been applied to the One Dimensional Time to Explosion (ODTX) apparatus and experiments with the aim of allowing an estimate of the comparative violence of the explosion event to be made. Non-mechanical methods used were a simple visual inspection, measuring the increase in the void volume of the anvils following an explosion and measuring the velocity of the sound produced by the explosion over 1 metre. Mechanical methods used included monitoring piezo-electric devices inserted in the frame of the machine and measuring the rotational velocity of a rotating bar placed on the top of the anvils after it had been displaced by the shock wave. This last method, which resembles original Hopkinson Bar experiments, seemed the easiest to apply and analyse, giving relative rankings of violence and the possibility of the calculation of a “detonation” pressure.

Predicting violence in schizophrenia: a prospective study

Background: People with schizophrenia are more violent than the general population, but this increased risk is attributable to the actions of a small subgroup. Identifying those at risk has become an essential part of clinical practice. Aims: To estimate the risk factors for assault in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: Two hundred seventy-one patients with schizophrenia were interviewed using an extensive battery of instruments. Assault was measured from multiple data sources over the next 2 years and criminal records were obtained. Multiple sociodemographic and clinical variables measured at baseline were examined as possible predictors of assault during follow-up. Results: Sixty-nine (25%) patients committed assault during the 2-year followup. The model that best predicted assault included a history of recent assault (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.17-4.61), a previous violent conviction (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.04-3.87), having received special education (OR 2.76, 95% CI 1.22-6.26) and alcohol abuse (OR 3.55, 95% CI 1.24-10.2). Conclusions: Previously established risk factors including a history of violence and alcohol abuse are replicated in this study. Although low premorbid IQ did not predict violence, a need for special education did. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Return of the 'Angry Woman': authenticating female physical action in contemporary cinema

In 1999, Elizabeth Hills pointed up the challenges that physically active women on film still posed, in cultural terms, and in relation to certain branches of feminist theory . Since then, a remarkable number of emphatically active female heroes have appeared on screen, from 'Charlie’s Angels' to 'Resident Evil', 'Aeon Flux', and the 'Matrix' and 'X-Men' trilogies. Nevertheless, in a contemporary Western culture frequently characterised as postfeminist, these seem to be the ‘acceptable face’ – and body – of female empowerment: predominantly white, heterosexual, often scantily clad, with the traditional hero’s toughness and resolve re-imagined in terms of gender-biased notions of decorum: grace and dignity alongside perfect hair and make-up, and a body that does not display unsightly markers of physical exertion. The homogeneity of these representations is worth investigating in relation to critical claims that valorise such air-brushed, high-kicking 'action babes' for their combination of sexiness and strength, and the feminist and postfeminist discourses that are refracted through such readings. Indeed, this arguably ‘safe’ set of depictions, dovetailing so neatly with certain postfeminist notions of ‘having it all’, suppresses particular kinds of spectacles in relation to the active female body: images of physical stress and extension, biological consequences of violence and dangerous motivations are all absent. I argue that the untidy female exertions refused in popular “action babe” representations are now erupting into view in a number of other contemporaneous movies – 'Kill Bill' Vols 1 & 2, 'Monster', and 'Hard Candy' – that mark the return of that which is repressed in the mainstream vision of female power – that is, a more viscerally realistic physicality, rage and aggression. As such, these films engage directly with the issue of how to represent violent female agency. This chapter explores what is at stake at a representational level and in terms of spectatorial processes of identification in the return of this particularly visceral rendering of the female avenger.

Terrorist transgressions: gendered representations of the terrorist in visual culture

The aim of Terrorist Transgressions is to analyse the myths inscribed in images of the terrorist and identify how agency is attributed to representation through invocations and inversions of gender stereotypes. In modern discourses on the terrorist the horror experienced in Western societies was the appearance of a new sense of the vulnerability of the body politic, and therefore of the modern self with its direct dependency on security and property. The terrorist has been constructed as the epitome of transgression against economic resources and moral, physical and political boundaries. Although terrorism has been the focus of intense academic activity, cultural representations of the terrorist have received less attention. Yet terrorism is dependent on spectacle and the topic is subject to forceful exposure in popular media. While the terrorist is predominantly aligned with masculinity, women have been active in terrorist organisations since the late 19th century and in suicidal terrorist attacks since the 1980s. Such attacks have confounded constructions of femininity and masculinity, with profound implications for the gendering of violence and horror. The publication arises from an AHRC networking grant, 2011-12, with Birkbeck, and includes collaboration with the army at Sandhurst RMA. The project relates to a wider investigation into feminism, violence and contemporary art.

Rethinking 'Inside the Visible'

This essay appears in the first book to examine feminist curatorship in the last 40 years. It undertakes an extended reading of Cathy de Zegher's influential exhibition, Inside the Visible, An Elliptical Traverse of 20th Century Art. In, of and From the Feminine (1995) which proposed that modern art should be understood through cyclical shifts involving the constant reinvention of artistic method and identified four key moments in 20th century history to structure its project. The essay analyses Inside the Visible's concept of an elliptical traverse to raise questions about repetitions and recurrences in feminist exhibitions of the early 1980s, the mid 1990s and 2007 asking whether and in what ways questions of feminist curating have been continuously repeated and reinvented. The essay argues that Inside the Visible was a key project in second wave feminism and exemplified debates about women's time, first theorised by Julia Kristeva. It concludes, however, that 'women's time' has had its moment, and new conceptions of feminism and its history are needed if feminist curating is not endlessly to recycle its past. The essay informs a wider collaborative project on the sexual politics of violence, feminism and contemporary art, in collaboration with Edinburgh and one of the editors of this collection.

Atrocities in theory and practice: An introduction

Classical counterinsurgency theory – written before the 19th century – has generally strongly opposed atrocities, as have theoreticians writing on how to conduct insurgencies. For a variety of reasons – ranging from pragmatic to religious or humanitarian – theoreticians of both groups have particularly argued for the lenient treatment of civilians associated with the enemy camp, although there is a marked pattern of exceptions, for example, where heretics or populations of cities refusing to surrender to besieging armies are concerned. And yet atrocities – defined here as acts of violence against the unarmed (non-combatants, or wounded or imprisoned enemy soldiers), or needlessly painful and/or humiliating treatment of enemy combatants, beyond any action needed to incapacitate or disarm them – occur frequently in small wars. Examples abound where these exhortations have been ignored, both by forces engaged in an insurgency and by forces trying to put down a rebellion. Why have so many atrocities been committed in war if so many arguments have been put forward against them? This is the basic puzzle for which the individual contributions to this special issue are seeking to find tentative answers, drawing on case studies.

The Kurdish conflict: international humanitarian law and post-conflict mechanisms

This book is highly topical considering the recent resurgence of violence by the PKK, the incursions into Northern Iraq by the Turkish army and security forces and Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. Turkey has become an increasingly important player in Middle Eastern geopolitics. More than two decades of serious conflict in Turkey are proving to be a barrier to improved relations between Turkey and the EU. This book is the first study to address fully the legal and political dimensions of the conflict, and their impact on mechanisms for conflict resolution in the region, offering a scholarly exploration of a debate that is often politically and emotionally highly charged. Kerim Yildiz and Susan Breau look at the practical application of the law of armed conflicts to the ongoing situation in Turkey and Northern Iraq. The application of the law in this region also means addressing larger questions in international law, global politics and conflict resolution. Examples include belligerency in international law, whether the ‘war on terror’ has resulted in changes to the law of armed conflict and terrorism and conflict resolution. The Kurdish Conflict explores the practical possibilities of conflict resolution in the region, examining the political dynamics of the region, and suggesting where lessons can be drawn from other peace processes, such as in Northern Ireland. This book will be of great value to policy-makers, regional experts, and others interested in international humanitarian law and conflict resolution.