Emotions in the Research Process: Methodological Challenges and Theoretical Reflections Part II

Our session aims to elaborate on various understandings of the gaze that either refer to the act of in/directly witnessing violence or to the violent look itself: to the act of gaze that is present in certain events of our lives and is in a sense the result of our past, i.e., our life (hi)story.

Besides the different concepts of the gaze, or the encounters manifested in these gazes in philosophy and psychoanalysis (Buber, Levinas, Lacan, Sartre etc.), recent feminist theories (e.g. Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts) discuss the objectifying gaze of men towards women. Yet, this phenomenon of objectification can be present in any kind of "power situation", in which human beings become treated as objects. This is e.g., the gaze of the aggressor whose look becomes reflected in the terrified eyes of the children shot in Buchach.

Accordingly, we are especially interested in gazes related to traumatic (historical) events where we would like to grasp the complicated relationship between various gazes between the perpetrator, the bystander and the victim. At the same time, we are likewise interested in the analysis of institutions where the remembrance of these events is at stake and there are people whose gaze is directed on these past events.

Therefore, we would like to invite papers that reflect on these acts of gazing and the persons behind these gazes through the analysis of their biographies and biographical narrations, through which empathy and solidarity can also be strengthened towards those persecuted.