The third annual TraCe conference focused on the Excessive Use of Force. From October 30 to November 1, international speakers and experts from various disciplines and countries gathered in Giessen.
The TraCe annual conference began with a dialogue panel on “Darstellungen exzessiver Gewalt – zwischen Verstörung und Attraktion” in cooperation with and at Kunsthalle Giessen. Moderated by TraCe member Tina Cramer, four panelists discussed how images of violence affect us, when they become voyeuristic showpieces and when they take on the role of necessary documents.
After welcoming remarks by Katharina Lorenz (President of Justus Liebig University Giessen) and Nadia Ismail (Director of Kunsthalle Giessen), war photographer Vincent Haiges took the audience on a brief tour of a selection of his work in Ukraine, Iraq and Ethiopia. He then joined Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann (researcher at PRIF and associate fellow at TraCe), Claudia Hattendorff (professor of art history at Justus Liebig University Giessen) and Cornelia Wegerhoff (journalist) on the podium for a discussion. The diverse panel with different perspectives and the subsequent lively exchange with the audience enabled valuable insights on the topic. The panel was a successful exchange between science and practice.
To accompany the dialog panel, the Kunsthalle Giessen presented a selection of art works. After the discusion, in addition to the photographs by Vincent Haiges, the 106 people in the audience were able to view the photographic series “Survivors” by Congolese documentary photographer Arlette Bashizi, a documentation of the performance “Armor” by Afghan artist Kubra Khademi, who lives in exile in Paris, as well as an excerpt from the photo book “War Porn” by war reporter Christoph Bangert.
The presented artworks can be accessed on the Kunsthalle's Instagram channel and website. A video interview with documentary photographer Arlette Bashizi recorded especially for the event and a recording of the entire dialog panel are available on the TraCe YouTube channel. The Gießener Anzeiger and the Gießener Allgemeine also reported on the event.
With more than ten short presentations and three keynotes, the subsequent academic conference in English covered a broad conceptual range: from excessive violence and legal frameworks in past and present on an international scale, civil wars and intrastate violence to questions of (re-)establishing justice following the use of excessive violence. There were lively discussions between the members of TraCe and international academics. The presence of panelists on the dialog panel deepened the dialog between academia and practice from the previous day.
The scientific part of the TraCe annual conference began with welcoming remarks by organizer Thilo Marauhn. This was followed by Keynote 1 by Horst Carl (Giessen) on “Excessive Violence in the German Peasant's War”, which offered a historical perspective on the topic.
In the first panel, the speakers talked about “Excessive International Violence”. Hendrik Simon (Frankfurt) also gave a lecture with a historical perspective on “The Birth of the Modern Prohibition of War in the Shadow of Excessive Violence (1792- 1815)”. Taufiq E Faruque (Leiden) made a transition to current events with his lecture “Myanmar's Rohingyas and Cyclic Persecution: From British Colonialism to Contemporary Forced Conscription” and Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin (Geneva) spoke on “With Friends Like These: The Rights of Allies as a Pretext for Violence in International Legal Thought”.
After a joint lunch and the opportunity for direct exchange, Riccardo Vecellio Segate (Groningen) gave a lecture in the second panel “Legality and Legitimacy of Violence”, which sparked a lively discussion on groups particularly worthy of legal protection. Immediately afterwards, in the third panel “Excessive Internal Violence: Civil War”, Wolfgang Minatti (Florence) gave an insight into the justification of violence in Colombia.
After a short coffee break, the speakers of the fourth panel dealt with “Counter Terrorism” in various countries. José Rodrigo Moreno (Ecuador) spoke on “From Crime to Crackdown: Ecuador's Perpetual Loop of Violence and State Overreach” and Ali Ashraf (Dhaka) on “Global Norms or Local Imperatives: Explaining Variations in the Use of Force in Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh”.
The first day of the conference ended with Keynote 2 by Hanna Pfeifer (Hamburg) on “Excessive Force and Violence by State and Non-State Actors. A Critical Reflection Based on Recent Conflicts in West Asia and North Africa” and her definition of excessive force.
Following an exchange between the scientific advisory board and the TraCe members in the morning, the second day of the conference began with Keynote 3 on “Excessive Occupation” and a legal perspective on the topic by Eyal Benvenisti (Cambridge).
After lunch, Jonas Wolff (Frankfurt) gave a presentation on “The Killing of Social Activists: Excessive Use of Force Outsourced?”. In addition, the fifth panel “Deadly Force at the National and Subnational Level” included insights into other countries through the contribution of Ariadne Natal and Peter Kreuzer (Frankfurt) on “Politico-institutional Determinants of Police Excessive Use of Deadly Force: Comparing Brazil and the Philippines on the National and Subnational Levels”.
The sixth and final panel “Justice After Excessive Violence” rounded off the conference with presentations by Pia Falschebner (Marburg) on “Seeking (Transitional) Justice Through Truth and Memory: Victim Mobilization in Morocco” and by Maria Hartmann (Marburg) on “Decolonizing Syrian Justice in Battles of Ownership: The Koblenz Trials Inside and Beyond the Courtroom”.
After words of thanks from Thilo Marauhn, the scientists continued to talk about the past few days at the subsequent reception.
Titled “Technology and the Transformation of Political Violence”, the third interdisciplinary conference “Science · Peace · Security '23” took place in Darmstadt from Wednesday, September 20 to Friday, September 22, 2023. During the three day conference, nearly 120 scholars enaged in more talks, workshops and panels on current developments in technical peace research at the Georg-Lichtenberg-Haus in Darmstadt. The program consisted of more than 40 talks and idea pitches, poster presentations, panel sessions, one workshop and one dialogue panel connecting research and practice. In addition to scholars from Germany, participants arrived from the United Kingdom, Sweden, the USA, Colombia, India Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Czech Republic, Iraq, Austria and the Netherlands.
The conference was co-organized by PEASEC in cooperation with the Research Center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe).
The conference kicked-off on Wednesday, September 20, with the official welcome by PEASEC chair and TraCe scholar Prof. Dr Dr Christian Reuter. Afterwards, the first keynote by Dr Oliver Meier (Europan Leadership Network) focused on the possibilities for peace and conflict researchers to become active and support political processes for arms control and disarmament.
The consecutive days of the conference were entirely dedicated to lectures, workshops and panel discussions. After being officially welcomed by the Vice-President of TU Darmstadt Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Oechsner as well as the organizers, the second day started with another keynote by Prof. Dr Alice Mattoni (University of Bologna). In her talk, Prof. Mattoni presented her research in the context of the project “BIT-ACT” and discussed the transformative potential of digital technologies in fighting corruption by highlighting the democratic ideals embedded in these technologies.
In the following presentations and discussions, speakers addressed multiple topics such as geopolitical issues and (critical) infrastrucutres, the normative power of state actions or the Europan cyber security strategy. Additionally, speakers highlighted the current developments and paradigm shifts in relation to cyber-security and cyber-operations by discussing autonomous weapon systems, human-machine interactions, missile technology or security policy against the background of the so-called Tech War between the USA and China. During a poster session on Thursday, 14 scholars presented their research covering a broad spectrum from digital media use during social movements, critical infrastructures, hate speech, to information warfare as well as disarmament and arms control.
Several TraCe scholars also contributed to these disccusions by presenting their research. Whereas Prof. Dr Markus Lederer presented on “Solar geopolitics - the shining rise of India”, new TraCe Research Fellow Miyerlandy Cabanzo presented a critical perspective on issues in the context of protest and technologies. TraCe researcher Laura Guntrum, Verena Lasso Mena and Dr Kaya de Wolff also exhibited posters presenting their current research projects. Whereas Laura Guntrum and Verena Lasso Mena presented their research on “Unmasking Digital Threats in the Pursuit of Human Rights and Environmental Defense in La Guajira and Cesar, North Colombia”, Dr Kaya de Wolff gave an insight into “Political Violence, Populism and Social Media in Brazil”.
A particular highlight during the second conference day was the TraCe dialogue panel titled “ICT4Peace - The Role of Information and Communication Technology in (Digital) Peacebuilding”. Moderated by Prof. Dr Markus Lederer and Laura Guntrum, who also participated as a panelist, the dialogue panel specifically addressed the interested public beyond the academic sphere.
The panelists examined the possibilities and risks of digital peacebuilding and highlighted different aspects in regard to the needs of practictioners and scientific research. As such, panelists emphasized the potential of digital technologies in increasing access to peacuilding processes. Whereas Kerem Tugberk Capraz (Berghof Foundation) pointed to how even common technological products simplify connecting with stakeholders in peacebuilding processes by collecting stories and archiving them, Laura Guntrum adopted a gender perspective and highlighted how technology can enable larger community engagement particularly for women and marginalized communiites. Charles Martin-Shields (German Institute of Development and Sustainability) also stressed the inclusive potential of technology when working with refugees and displaced persons, yet also pointed towards the difficulties in bridging the gap between limitations at the institutional level and the creative and often very specific ways and needs of communities. Lastly, Fabian Hofmann (Geneva Graduate Institute) stressed the importance of gaining a critical distance to the appeal of digital technology. He pointed towards the materiality of technology that often already incorporates conflicts such as the environmental costs or human rights violations during production.
A recording of the dialogue panel is available on the TraCe YouTube Channel.
The “Science Peace Security” Conference was organized for the third time and aims to strengthen scientific and technical peace and conflict research.
More information on this year's programm can be found here.
The scientific conference was opened by Stathis Kalyvas (University of Oxford) and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Center. With his keynote address "Political Violence: Grand Patterns and Basic Concepts" and the subsequent discussion, he opened the conference in the Normative Orders Building at Goethe University's Westend Campus.
On the second day of the conference, the conference participants addressed the complex relationship between language and violence in three substantive panels.
The first panel, entitled "The Scientific Language of Violence," focused on the semantic complexity of the scientific concept of political violence. In their respective contributions, the scholars, moderated by Prof. Dr Christopher Daase, aimed to identify the changes in political, normative, and analytical meaning. Prof. Dr Hanna Pfeifer and Dr Regine Schwab spoke on "Challenging the state-non-state binary in the study of civil war". While Prof. Dr Susanne Buckley-Zistel presented results of her research on the production of knowledge on sexual violence in truth commissions, Prof. Dr phil. Markus Lederer clodes the panel with a contribution on "Radical climate movements in Germany - is the hype around a potential 'Green Army Faction' a useful analogy, a helpful warning or simplistic propaganda?".
After lunch, conference participants gathered for the second panel, moderated by Prof. Dr phil. Markus Lederer. The panel, entitled "The Public Semantics of Violence," focused on the relations between political violence and public speech acts, and the contributions focused on different dimensions of framing. While the first contribution by Georg Krajewsky (TU Darmstadt) dealt with the (re)framing of colonial violence, Dr Kaya de Wolff focused on Brazil and presented first results of her field research in the context of the presidential elections in October 2022 and the use of social networks. Prof. Dr Jonas Wolff closed the panel with a contribution on "Political, criminal, or private? The politics of framing targeted killing of civil society activists".
The last panel, titled "Language as Violence," focused on the ways in which language itself can act as political violence. Under the moderation of Dr Raphaël Cahen, the researchers focused on different areas in their contributions. Prof. Dr Monika Wingender discussed in the first contribution of the panel "Russkiy Mir" and "Cancel Russian Culture" - language(s) and war" and Polina Zavershinskaia (University of Leipzig) continued with her contribution "Narrating the Russian war against Ukraine: Kremlin's recontextualization of the Great Patriotic War Narrative". Prof. Dr Horst Carl added a historical perspective in his contribution, discussing the radicalization of language around 1800, and Prof. Dr Felix Anderl closed the panel with his and Ida Forbriger's contribution on "Land grabbing? Impeded access to land? Attempts of 'naming' rural violence and is potential for emancipatory politics in rural Eastern Germany".
Finally, the members of the scientific advisory board came together in a concluding discussion round, which was moderated by Prof. Dr Jonas Wolff. After a digital greeting by Prof. Anoma Pieris from Melbourne, Prof. Dr. Svenja Goltermann (University of Zurich), Prof. Bear Braumoeller (The Ohio State University) and Stathis Kalyvas (Oxford University) reflected on the conference and the presented research against the background of the content-related orientation of the research center. The academic part of the conference ended with a joint dinner, where the participants could end the day with an informal exchange of ideas.
The conference was brought to a special conclusion by the German-language dialogue panel, which specifically addressed the interested public beyond the academic sphere. The panel titled "Language and Violence - Perspectives from Theory and Practice" took place in cooperation with the cluster initiative "ConTrust" and the Frankfurt Public Library (Stadtbücherei Frankfurt). Moderated by Prof. Dr Christopher Daase and Rebecca Schmidt (ConTrust), Prof. Dr. Meron Mendel, Dr. Natasha A. Kelly and Dr. Nicole Rieber discussed the interface of language and violence from a practical perspective. On the one hand, the focus was on the structural violence of racist language, the handling of violence and incitement on the net, as well as potentials for action and the transformation of struggles against anti-Semitism and racism.
Prof. Dr. Meron Mendel (professor of social work and director of the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank) works on topics such as anti-Semitism, racism, and identity politics in migration societies. Dr. Natasha A. Kelly (communication scientist, author, curator) works on structural racism and feminism. Dr. Nicole Rieber (Berghof Foundation) focuses on hate and violence on the internet.
The panel brings practice and science into dialogue and combines different approaches to language and violence from practical contexts. On the one hand, the panel focused on the structural violence of racist language, on how to deal with violence and incitement on the internet. On the other hand, practitioners talked about the potential for action and the transformation of struggles against anti-Semitism and racism.
A recording of the "Dialogpanel" [in German] is available on our YouTube channel.
