The Cost of Violence: Its Impact on Political, Cultural, and Emotional Memory, Representation, and Trauma

Violence is a ubiquitous feature of human society expressed as a means of domination within face-to-face interactions, intimate relations, social relations, institutions, and between nations. How do groups, societies, and governments deal with the memory of violence? How do they commemorate their victims, punish their perpetrators, and how do memories impact national or group interests in forming narratives of traumatic and/or violent events? How does the impact and effects of violence shape the relationships between victims and perpetrators in the present and future? Who has the legitimacy to create narratives of traumatic and violent events? Is there one narrative or competing narratives, and how do the politics of commemoration and representation impact discussions of reparations and reconciliation?

This panel will showcase sociologists working on any aspect of the cost of violence, including war, genocide, terrorism, violence against women, violence in schools, the workplace, sports, family, or other institutions. Papers are welcome that deal with the effects of violence on subsequent victim and perpetrator relationships, as well as the memory of conflict, collective trauma, continued conflict, or reconciliation. Papers could also address memory and memorialization, commemoration, memory and identity politics (constructing victims and perpetrators), political sites of memory, retributive justice, forgiveness, and forgetting. The panel will address how violence impacts future peace or subsequent conflict.