2013 Davies Workshop Response - Allie Khori

         

2013 Davies Forum Workshop: Feminist Perspectives on Studying Women, Violence & War

April 8^th, 2013

Invited Guests (Davies Fellows):

n  Sarai Aharoni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (http://saraiaharoni.com/)

n  Caron Gentry, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (http://www.standrews.ac.uk/intrel/people/index.php/ceg1.html)

n  Swati Parashar, Monash University, Australia (http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/swati-parashar/)

n  Elina Penttinen, University of Tampere, Finland (http://www.uta.fi/jkk/pol/yhteystiedot/penttinen.html)

 

          What really struck me about the workshop was the commitment that I saw the speakers show to an aspect of feminist research which states that the input of all individuals should be taken seriously (though not necessarily agreed with.)  They seemed genuinely interested in what we students had to contribute, despite our youth and the fact that for many of us, feminism and/or gender and sexuality studies are relatively new. 

            I also appreciated the different perspectives they offered, not only in terms of opinion but of background, research approach, and even method of inquiry.  We partook in an art activity led by Elina.  First we were guided through a short relaxation exercise, and then we were asked to draw for a short period of time in response to the words Elina gave us which pertained to violence/peace binaries. 

Even though I consider myself an artistic person, and I can often be found doodling, the images that I drew in our exercise surprised me, both in terms of what images I first associate (at least, at that moment they were my first associations) with violence, and how specific and personal they were because I don’t think of myself as someone who’s been exposed to much violence.  This activity reminded me of something one of the speakers at the ISA conference mentioned; how everyone is not just “affected” by violence and war, but how everyone is touched by violence and war in a way that is unique to that person and their individual circumstances.  This concept can be closely linked to an investigative method used in feminist securities studies which (in theory) attempts to focus on the unique individual and then compare them with more generalized knowledge (See Cynthia Enloe’s work, especially Nimo’s War, Emma’s War).

            The artistic activity we participated in helped us examine and reflect on our emotions and their connections to particular words/concepts.  This was directly related to one of the pieces we read by one of our workshop panelists: Swati Parashar.  Her piece, from Chapter 36 “(En) gendered Terror: Feminist Approaches to Political Violence” of her as of yet unpublished book, speaks to the suppression of emotions that she experienced when trying to “remain objective” while conducting research.  She found this endeavour to be problematic, as at a fundamental level it is humanly impossible to be totally “objective.”  Thus it would follow that remaining very aware of one’s emotions would help one to identify one’s bias, and thus present a more truthful account of one’s view.  I perceive this inclusion of the researcher’s bias to be one of the most vital contributions that Feminist IR makes to academia as a whole.

Enloe, C. (2010) Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.