We moved to a new hostel last night which is cheaper and we each have our own room and bathroom. Mine even has a big bathtub (but no shower curtain, so the floor is now a small swamp post-shower!). The wireless is not working, though, which is a big bummer. But they say a guy is coming some time today to fix it. Apparently we are only the second people to even want to use the wireless, so we are the test subjects it seems.
On to other things…
We had a nice meeting yesterday with a woman named Jasna whom we met at the conference. She works for the University of Sarajevo Institute for the Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, and she gave us a ton of good advice about how to go about conducting our respective projects. She also gave us some more contact information for women’s groups that might be good collaborators for us.
We also visited the library of the Institute and I left some flyers for my books in the library. Sarah is going to read my book and then donate her copy to the library when she is done, which makes me feel very good. I wish I had more copies—they went like hot cakes as soon as I offered them to the conference participants.
After all this excitement, we met with a translator whom Sarah may hire for her project. It was very interesting to sit in on the meeting, and the woman Lejla is very smart, beautiful, and speaks impeccable English. She is a student and spent last year studying in the US at the University of Georgia. Being able to vicariously experience the process of setting up a research project here in Bosnia has been very helpful for me in terms of thinking about my own project, both process and budget. All together, being part of Sarah’s process has been very useful and encouraging to me.
Yesterday I also bought an incredible book that one of the conference participants recommended to me. It is called Zlata’s Diary, and it is the diary of an 11-year old girl living in Sarajevo during the war. Many people have compared to Anne Frank’s Diary and certainly there are parallels. I have almost finished it, because it is a fast read (although upsetting to hear about the war from a child’s perspective). I highly recommend reading it if you have a chance. It is widely available and I am sure they have it on Amazon or at your local bookstore.
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This is the reconstructed bridge connecting Croat and Muslim communities on either side of the Neretva river.
If You Are Interested in My Work
The Old Bridge of Mostar
This is the reconstructed bridge connecting Croat and Muslim communities on either side of the Neretva river.
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International Association of Genocide Scholars Conference
I have been invited to present my work at this conference, which focuses on understanding and thus preventing genocide. The conference is held biannually, and it alternates between a US location and an international location. This is the first time the conference has been held in a place where there was a recent genocide, and the conference has shifted appropriately to give homage to the atrocities that happened in Sarajevo and Bosnia-Hercegovina. For example, we will be spending the entire day on Wednesday participating in a memorial at Srebrenica (where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and women and girls were forcibly removed and assaulted). The memorial includes a reburial of remains that were excavated/identified in the past year (they have this memorial with proper reburial of remains discovered each year). If you want to learn more about the conference or read about the presentations I will be attending, you can check out the main website at http://www.isg-iags.org/ and the conference website at http://www.isg-iags.org/events/2007iags.html.
Ruby's Book is Available!
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The Contemporary Problem of Mass Rape
Sexual assault is used as a tactic of war and genocide because of its consequences for individuals, families, and communities. The physical and emotional impact of individual assaults are magnified when rape is committed on a mass scale, as in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Rwanda, and Darfur. Forced sexual penetration with insemination and impregnation represents a symbolic conquest of the woman by the rapist and by extension the raped woman’s community, family or culture.
This symbolic conquest becomes applicable to the whole population as survivors, witnesses, families and communities internalize rape as an assault on their collective identity. Although social welfare is uniquely suited to respond to the problems of rape, the topic of mass rape has been neglected. This book makes a plea for deeper engagement by social welfare and social work scholars and professionals in responding to the problems of mass rape.
This symbolic conquest becomes applicable to the whole population as survivors, witnesses, families and communities internalize rape as an assault on their collective identity. Although social welfare is uniquely suited to respond to the problems of rape, the topic of mass rape has been neglected. This book makes a plea for deeper engagement by social welfare and social work scholars and professionals in responding to the problems of mass rape.
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