Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation
On 05 March 2024, SHaME hosted its final online event, a book launch and panel discussion with editors Kimberly Theidon, Dyan Mazurana and Dipali Anumol for their new book, Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation.
You can watch a recording of the event here.
Worldwide, tens of thousands of children have been born because of wartime sexual violence. The Women Peace and Security Agenda focuses on women’s experiences, priorities, and roles in peacebuilding during and after war. Several Security Council Resolutions focus on sexual violence during conflict. Yet there is only passing mention of the full range of sexual and reproductive rights and freedoms of women such as pregnancy, abortion and forced maternity. Additionally, while there are important advances in international calls to action for children born of sexual violence in conflict, there is a dearth of in-depth and longitudinal research to inform these calls to action.
A global audience joined editors Kimberly Theidon, Dyan Mazurana and Dipali Anumol as they shared contemporary research findings and insights regarding the health and wellbeing of children born of wartime sexual violence, their mothers, fathers and broader communities. The book launch was chaired by SHaME’s Dr Rhian Keyse, with presentations by Kimberly, Dyan and Dipali, followed by a discussion and audience Q&A.
Presentations:
• Life Cycles: Children Born of Wartime Rape Across Time and Space – Kimberly Theidon
• (In)visibility: Concealment, Disclosure, and the Question of Categories – Dyan Mazurana
• Transformations: Intergenerational Reconciliation and Justice – Dipali Anumol
Challenging Conceptions explores the latest research about the children born of wartime sexual violence, their mothers and fathers, and the experience across their life cycles. Through rich ethnographic and longitudinal research, the book identifies both the challenges and discrimination that many of the children experience, as well as the factors that may enhance their life chances. This ground-breaking collection explores the life cycles of children born of wartime rape across time and space. It shines light on the legacies of conflict-related sexual violence on mothers, children, families and communities. It focuses on the psychological, physical, sexual, and emotional impact of violence and its aftermaths on these children and their mothers. It explores the different ways these children learn about their origins and how they, their families and societies react to that understanding. It reveals the local, national, and international actions of how children born of wartime rape and their families are positioned in society and how they strive to transcend this and position themselves as they move from abuse, marginalization, and pain into belonging and justice.
If you order Challenging Conceptions from Oxford University Press, you can receive a 30% discount with the code ASFLYQ6. Check out OUP’s book flyer for more information.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES:
Dipali Anumol is a doctoral candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she earned her Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 2019.
Dyan Mazurana, PhD, Research Professor, Co-Director of Gender and Intersectional Analysis and Women’s/Femmes’ Leadership Program, Fletcher School; Research Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Research Fellow, World Peace Foundation; Research Director, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University.
Kimberly Theidon, PhD, Henry J. Leir Professor in International Humanitarian Studies, Co-Director, Gender and Intersectional Analysis and Women’s/Femmes’ Leadership Program, the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Dr Rhian Keyse is a postdoctoral researcher on the SHaME project. She is a social and cultural historian of gender in modern Africa. Her doctoral research examined international, imperial, and local responses to forced and early marriage in British colonial Africa. Her current project examines the histories of medico-legal responses to sexual violence in (post)colonial Anglophone Africa, c.1920-1985, with a particular focus on Ghana and Kenya. Prior to joining the project, Rhian worked in the gender-based violence sector, most recently providing trauma support to homeless women with experiences of sexual violence.