CfP: Panel “Gender, Violence and Refugee Communities”, ECAS 2015 

8-10 July 2015 in Paris, deadline: January 9, 2015.

Convenors: Buckley-Zistel, Susanne; Krause, Ulrike
Center for Conflict Studies, University of Marburg

For many refugees, the end of conflicts does not coincide with the end of violent assaults, but escaping war and repression only offers a certain degree of shelter from physical and structural violence. Women and girls, yet also men and boys, may become victims of sexual and gender-based violence, as has been increasingly reported by aid and human rights agencies in the past years. Moreover, the forceful recruitment of individuals in camps into armed groups, gang violence erupting amongst young refugees or violent disputes upon return to the place of origin suggest that there is a continuation of violence which penetrates into the supposedly safe havens. The experiences of displacement has an impact on social relations, in particular gender relations. While many humanitarian agencies and refugee-supporting organisations recognise this continuum of violence in general and sexual and gender-based violence in particular, they themselves become entangled in the re-negotiation of relations and the forging of new identities.

The panel explores the origins, scope and forms of violence against and amongst refugees from a gender perspective. It assesses how masculinities and femininities – as well as the way they relate to each other – change in the context of displacement and encampment. Case studies reach from the analysis of gendered violence in refugee camps, via the impact of the host community on gender relations, to the role of humanitarian agencies and their gender programmes.

The panel is now online and accessible via http://www.ecas2015.fr/gender-violence-and-refugee-communities/

Please submit a short abstract of max. 1500 characters by January 9, 2015.