Description:

Saviors, Survivors, and Role Models: Humanity, Ethnicity, and Violence against Women

There is no doubt that the Islamists’ rise to power in the 1980s has put Sudan at the center of transnational media attention. The resurgence of conservatism and right wing politics in the West and the East reanimated a politics of fear and reproduced new clashing discourses and practices about identity and citizenship and new articulations of gender, ethnic violence, and suffering. Within this context, Fadlalla examines how the production and circulation of gender- based violence narratives framed Sudan’s conflicts, branded humanity in a liberal fashion, and shaped the practices of Sudanese activists and their allies in the Sudan and the diaspora. In many temporary and newly formed humanitarian publics, she argues, the ethno-gendered representation of Sudanese men and women as victims and survivors is transformed into powerful narratives that won them the status of role models within the human rights and humanitarian fields. These representations bring to light new imaginings of national and transnational belonging and highlight the post-Cold War politics and confrontation among different national and transnational actors over the meanings of rights, sovereignty, and global citizenship.

Co-sponsored by the Program in African Studies.