Bogudgivelse og seminar: Uskyldens Politik – Hutu identitet og livet i en flygtningelejr

Time: Friday 4 March at 15 -17 hours

Venue: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, ground floor, Strandgade 71, Christianshavn, 1401 Kbn K

Background

Time: Friday 4 March at 15 -17 hours

Venue: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, ground floor, Strandgade 71, Christianshavn, 1401 Kbn K

Background

What happens when 100,000 people are put in a camp for years and years? What happens when they are fed, nursed and protected by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) but treated as infants and expected not to engage in politics?

Is it possible to become a man or a woman when gender, age and class relations are turned upside down?
How do people make sense of their situation in the strictly confined and controlled space of the camp?

How do they relate to their bloody past and the civil war that is taking place just across the border – a war where the categories of victim and perpetrator are blurred? What role do rumors, violence and politics play in reshaping the camp?

These are some of the questions that Simon Turner’s book, The Politics of Innocence, (Berghahn Books, 2010) poses – and attempts to answer.

Three invited scholars and practitioners will discuss the various aspects of the book. How does a study of politics in a refugee camp contribute to theoretical debates in biopower, sovereignty and the exception? What does the book teach us about humanitarianism and (gendered) perceptions of victims? How does the book contribute to understandings of masculinity?

Turner’s book offers fascinating insights into the daily realities in a refugee camp hidden under the bureaucratic model imposed by the relief agencies. In the UNHCR staff’s blueprint the camp is an a-political, homogeneous space and refugees are innocent victims who have to be empowered.

“Turner shows – with the help of both vivid ethnography and seminal interpretations – that reality is strikingly different” (Peter Geschiere, Professor, University of Amsterdam).

This work represents a major contribution to the understanding of camp life in refugee contexts. Given the limited number of texts in English on the Burundiconflict and refugee contexts, this work will be of considerable significance.

“It is the first to engage with the recent post-1994 refugee population on the ground and based on original material that is derived from primary research in a refugee camp” (Patricia Daley, Lecturer, University of Oxford).

SPEAKERS
* Staffan Löfving, Visiting Lecturer, Stockholm University
* Finn Stepputat, Senior Researcher, DIIS
* Thomas Thomsen, Chief Advisor, Team Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
* Simon Turner, Senior Researcher, DIIS

PROGRAMME
14.30-15.00
Arrival and Coffee

15.00-15.10
Introduction – Simon Turner, Senior Researcher, DIIS

15.10-16.20
Politics of Innocence – Hutu Identity, Conflict and Camp Life – Staffan Löfving, Finn Stepputat and Thomas Thomsen

16.20-17.00
Open Discussion

17.00-18.00
Reception

Chair: Simon Turner, Senior Researcher, DIIS

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form

And do so no later than Thursday March 3 at 12.00 noon

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation.

Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), The Conference Section, Strandgade 56, 1401 Kbn K, tlf. 32 69 87 51, e-mail: [email protected] og web: www.diis.dk