The conference is FREE, March 26 & 27. Register here: https://lnkd.in/epHnenEm
Thank you to the GJIA editors for soliciting this piece, where I reflect on my research about genocide memory, justice, and meaning-making and share some policy implications and considerations for post-genocide societies.
Thank you to The Conversation, The National Interest, and over 20 community newspapers for disseminating this piece.
Lessons from the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, 25 years after the genocide it failed to stop
I am pleased to announce that I will spend the 2019-2020 academic year in residence at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School to complete my dissertation. Please feel free to get in touch for more information about my project on stakeholder negations and transitional justice in the immediate aftermath of violence, atrocity crimes, and genocide.
Harvard Law School’s announcement can be found here:
PON Graduate Research Fellows 2019-2020
Article link below.
Peace and stability have been core challenges in the Great Lakes Region of Africa since the years of independence from European nations. State building processes have been ridden by ongoing violence, characterized by two-sided or multi-party violence perpetrated by militias, national militaries, rogue groups, and even local civilians. The international system has prioritized peace accords and negotiation processes when parties in conflict decide to move past the violence, either required by external actors, or based on the instability of the situation on the ground. When warring parties and international actors sign peace accords to end conflict in an attempt to begin political dialogue, they often reinforce the international legal assumption that these negotiations will bring about positive change, including peace and stability. The cases of Rwanda and Burundi are complicated, with social, historical, political, ideological, and economic factors leading to violence on the ground. The Arusha Accords of 1993 in Rwanda and of 2000 in Burundi were followed only by short-term stability, with an eventual return to conflict. This study examines the effects of the Arusha Peace Accords signed prior to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the Arusha Accords of 2000, which ended 12 years of civil war in Burundi. As shown in this paper and through our research, peace negotiations and peace processes take place in an unideal situation, yet in order for future peace to be achieved they must be attempted. The failure of Arusha in Rwanda and in Burundi show some of the complexities and challenges faced in these two case studies, and analyze why there was a return to violence in each case.
In 2011-2012, I had a Fulbright Scholarship to Switzerland that opened my world to victim-based testimony, and to documenting lesser known stories of atrocity and resilience. I am pleased to share that I have published my first book, co-authored with the amazing scholar Paul Bartrop. “Heroines of Vichy France” can be purchased on amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Heroines-Vichy-France-Re…/…/ref=nodl_ or through the publisher, Praeger. Thank you to all, read and enjoy our story!
Please join me for my presentation at the University of Cambridge in the UK!
7 March Location: Room 5, Study Centre, Jesus College
“Cultures of Memory and Meaning in Tradition and Post-Genocide Rwanda”
Samantha Lakin (Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University)
https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/graduate-students/training/workshops/world-history
Please join me as I present preliminary dissertation findings
Samantha Lakin, Ph.D. 