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The Interdisciplinary Seminar on Conflict and Violence is designed to promote interdisciplinary exchanges among faculty and students interested in the topics of conflict, violence, and peace, from a wide range of departments across campus. Each meeting includes a 30-35 minute presentation followed by a half-hour discussion. |
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UPCOMING EVENT:
Dr. Glendene Lemard, Research Assistant Professor, Health Policy & Management, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; the Managing Director for the Greater Springfield- University of Massachusetts Amherst Partnership.
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Source: umass.edu/sphhs/chs/hpm/faculty/lemard.html
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Class, Culture and Violence in Jamaica: What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 5:30-6:30pm
Tobin Hall, Rm. 521B
Open to Everyone.
Jamaica is a small island developing state with one of the highest murder rates in the world. It is a democratic society with a stable system of government and many of the murders stem from interpersonal disputes such as acts of revenge, robberies and drug or gang-related activity. There is much discussion on the root causes of violence in the country but empirical analyses of the patterns in killing tend to reveal issues not readily seen or acknowledged by the society.
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This presentation will examine the patterns of killings in Jamaica since independence in 1962 up to 2007 and will discuss the implications for health and development. The presentation will also examine the underlying factors that impact the growth in violence in the country which include the class structure, inequality and distinctions in access to opportunities. It will also examine social norms and mores that promote a culture of violence. Seemingly, "nonsensical killings" as in the case of some reprisals and many mob killings may in fact have patterns not readily apparent that suggest a rhyme and reason for such action. The information garnered can help to inform strategies to boost violence prevention efforts which will also be discussed.
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Dr. Andrew Papachristos, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Visiting Scholar, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
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The Corner and the Crew: The Role of Inter-Group Conflict and Geographic Turf on Gang Violence (October 22, 2009)
Dr. Andrew Papachristos’ research uses social network analysis to examine: the social structures and group processes at the heart of interpersonal violence and delinquency; issues of group dominance and reciprocity; and the use of violence and honor as measures of social control.
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Source: www.umass.edu/sociol/faculty_staff/
papachristos.html |
In this presentation he uses a social network approach to examine the influence of two dimensions of street gangs on violent behavior: inter-group conflict and the overlap of geographic turf. Inter-group conflict and gang turf are essential aspects of gang formation, group identity, and the collective processes at the foundation of many gang behaviors, including violence. Using incident level police records and detailed maps of turf boundaries, this paper recreates and analyzes gang violence by examining the social networks of action and reaction that create them. The findings suggest that individual violent interactions between gangs create an institutionalized network of group conflict, net of any gang’s size, racial composition, group specific effects, and turf overlap. Violence moves through these networks through an epidemic-like process of social contagion that is fueled by dominance considerations of gangs jockeying for social status.
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Dr. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Professor of Psychology University of Cape Town, South Africa,
and award winning author of the book, A Human Being Died That Night.
Image: huntalternatives.org |
Working through the Past: Some Thoughts on Forgiveness in Cultural Context (September 17, 2009)
In this presentation, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela will explore forgiveness of perpetrators as a unique outcome of the truth commission method in the aftermath of mass violence and political conflict. She will briefly identify some developmental trends in the debates on forgiveness in the context of mass atrocity. |
Using a case example from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she will explore the development of empathy in an encounter between victims and a perpetrator in the context of the perpetrator’s remorseful apology on the one hand, and the victims’ forgiveness on the other. She will consider the subtleties of cultural language in the dialogical exchange between victims and perpetrators when both victims and perpetrators are black Africans, and argue that apology and forgiveness provide impetus for transformation. The apology and forgiveness response in politics should be viewed as an essential feature of human connectedness, and a moral imperative necessary to restore hope before the work of reconciliation can start.
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Dr. Jorge Manzi, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Measurement in the School
of Psychology at Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Santiago, Chile.
Political Reconciliation in Post-Pinochet Chile: Political and Psychosocial Processes (March 26, 2009)
Manzi's research in social psychology concentrates on political phenomena, including such diverse themes as the development of political ideas and affiliations among youth, collective memory for political events, and the role of emotions in processes of reconciliation. Currently, he is conducting a large-scale panel study to examine aspects of political culture among three generations of Chileans.
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Image; puc.cl/ficha_profesor.php?idProfesor=23 |
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Dr. Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; Academy Scholar at Harvard Academy for
International Affairs, Harvard University.
Image: dakartoportloko.com/Site/Expert Reviews.html |
Deference, Dissent, and Dispute Resolution: An Experimental Intervention using Mass Media to Change Norms and Behavior in Rwanda (March 5, 2009)
Deference and dissent strike a delicate balance in any polity. Insufficient deference to authority may incapacitate government; too much may allow leaders to orchestrate mass violence. Although cross-national and cross-temporal variation in deference to authority and willingness to express dissent has long been studied in the social sciences, rarely have scholars studied programs designed to change these aspects of political culture.
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The present study, situated in post-genocide Rwanda, reports a qualitative and quantitative assessment of one such attempt, a radio program aimed at discouraging blind obedience and reliance on direction from authorities, and at promoting independent thought and local initiative in problem solving. This radio program or a control program dealing with HIV were randomly presented over the course of one year to pairs of communities, including communities of genocide survivors, Twa people, and imprisoned génocidaires. Changes in individual attitudes, community norms, and deliberative behaviors were assessed using closed-ended interviews, focus group discussions, role-play exercises, and unobtrusive measures of collective decision-making. Although the radio program had little effect on many kinds of beliefs and attitudes, it did have a substantial impact on listeners' willingness to express dissent and the way they resolved communal problems. Consistent with some arguments regarding the origins of political culture, these results suggest that certain aspects of political culture are changeable, at least in the short run.
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Dr. Joanne Corbin,
Associate Professor of Social Work, Smith College School of Social Work.
Returning to Normal in Northern Uganda: A Qualitative Study of Individuals' Experiences to Return Home After Armed Conflict. (February 12, 2009)
The 20 year armed conflict in Northern Uganda involving the LRA diminished in intensity by 2006-2007. Residents of Internally Displaced Persons' (IDP) camps were being encouraged to return to their former home areas. This qualitative study examines the experiences of residents that were settled in one IDP camp. Some have return to resettlement villages or their former villages; others have decided to remain in the camp.
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Image: www.smith.edu/ssw/admin/faculty_corbin.php |
Responses from those interviewed help us to understand the decisions around remaining in the camp or returning home. Whether individuals decided to remain or return, all had to make choices about resuming livelihoods, re-establishing cultural practices and values, and recreating community. This study is an extension of Dr. Corbin's 2005 study on resettlement experiences of formerly abducted children in Northern Uganda.
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Dr. Wenona Rymond-Richmond,
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Dehumanization and Racial Epithets in the Darfur Genocide. (December 4, 2008)
Sociologists empirically and theoretically neglect genocide. Our critical collective framing perspective begins by focusing on state origins of race based ideology in the mobilization and dehumanization leading to genocide. We elaborate this transformative dynamic by identifying racially driven macro-micro-macro level processes which are theoretically underdeveloped and contested in many settings.
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Image: www.umass.edu/sociol/faculty_staff/rymondrich.html |
We investigate generic processes by exploiting an unprecedented survey of refugees from the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Our focus is on the Sudanese government’s crisis framing of a dehumanizing collective process. Sudanese forces joined with Janjaweed militia to attack black African settlements. They aggregated and concentrated racial epithets in a collective process of dehumanization and organized terror which amplified the severity of genocidal victimization, the lethal and lasting scar of the genocidal state. Our findings question primordial and counter-insurgency explanations, while supporting aspects of the instrumental, population-resource, constructionist and cognitive perspectives that form the foundation of our critical collective framing perspective.
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| Dr. Nurit Shnabel, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Yale University, Department of Psychology; Department of Education and Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel. |
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The Needs-Based Model of Reconciliation.
(November 13, 2008)
In recent years there has been a growing understanding that agreements that aim to end conflicts between adversaries should address emotional issues such as mutual respect, acceptance, compassion, and justice, and that failing to do so will leave these agreements particularly fragile. This understanding is reflected in the growing interest in the concept of reconciliation, the process of removing the emotional barriers that block the path to harmonious relations.
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In particular, the Needs-Based Model suggests that following a victimization episode both victims and perpetrators experience a threat to differential dimensions of their identities, and that the reciprocal removal of these threats through symbolic gestures may promote reconciliation between former adversaries. The applicability of this model to various conflicts, such as the ones between Israelis and Arabs, Jews and Germans, or between majority and minority groups within the same society (e.g., Blacks and Whites in the USA) was examined. Policy implications drawn from the model was discussed.
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Dr. Ed Cairns, Professor of Psychology, University of Ulster, UK.
The Contact Hypothesis in Northern Ireland: Research, Policy, and Practice (April 1, 2008)
Dr. Ed Cairns teaches Psychology at the University of Ulster and has been a visiting scholar at the universities of Florida, Cape Town, and Melbourne. Most of his work has investigated the psychological aspects of political violence in relation to conflict in Northern Ireland. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a past President of the Division of Peace Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
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Dr. Ed Cairns, Source: www2.ulster.ac.uk/staff/e.cairns.html |
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Dr. Jacqueline Urla,
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Basque demonstrations and
protests (from britannica.com)
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Basque Social
Movements on Trial (February 28, 2008).
Dr. Urla reflects on how research
on language and cultural activism has changed in light of new anti
terrorist strategies in the Basque Country of Spain.
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In 1996, the
special anti-terrorist court of Spain, the Audiencia Nacional, began a
new strategy for eliminating nationalist political violence that
targeted what they call the social and economic “infrastructure” of
ETA. The activities she had been documenting as an
ethnographer -- language revitalization and civil disobedience -- once
considered quite distinct from political violence, came under
suspicion and their authors have been arrested and imprisoned. As
the line between legitimate forms of dissent and political violence were
blurred, she found herself confronted with new ethical
challenges. She used the case of the virtually unreported
trial of civic dissenters concluded in December 2007 as an
example of the new climate of fear and intimidation and the questions
it has posed for her as an anthropologist with long-term ties to
individuals who now find themselves in prison.
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Dr. Nida Bikmen, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Denison University. |
History, Memory
and Identity: Remembering the Homeland in Exile (November 2, 2007).
Dr. Bikmen's research explored the effects of
collective memory on intergroup relations among refugees from Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
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 Photo: Bosnian Refugees from msf.org
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After receiving a master’s degree in psychology
from Bogazici University in her native Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Bikmen
began her doctoral studies at the Graduate
Center of City University of New York. She received her degree in
social psychology in 2007 and is currently an Assistant Professor of
Psychology at Denison University in Ohio.
In her research, Dr.
Bikmen has examined various aspects of group identities and relations
using methodologies ranging from experimental manipulations to in-depth
interviews and focus groups. Much of her current work
investigates issues associated with immigration, ethnic and national
identification, perceived disadvantage, and attitudes toward collective
action.
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In addition, Dr. Bikmen and Dr. Jacqueline Mosselson (Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst) co-facilitated an open discussion on conducting researh with immigrant and refugee populations.
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Dr. Jacqueline Mosselson is an assistant professor at the Center for International Education (UMass Amherst). She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in comparative education and developmental psychopathology (2002) and a Master’s of International Affairs in economic and political development (1997) from Columbia University. |
Source: umass.edu/cie/faculty_staff/index.htm |
Her doctoral dissertation, Roots and Routes: Re-imagining the Reactive Identities of Bosnian Adolescent Female Refugees, explored the ways adolescent refugees understand and self-identities in the context of flight and relocation and the impact of education on the refugee condition. Dr. Mosselson has worked as a consultant for the International Rescue Committee, examining health-related issues in the Republic of Georgia, psychosocial functioning among escapees from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, and as part of an evaluation team examining Afghan refugee school programs in Pakistan. She has also worked as a consultant for Unicef in Mongolia. |
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Dr. Ulrich
Wagner, Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the Center
for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. |
Prejudice in
Germany (October 9, 2007)
Although Germany has
always been a country with immigrants, until recently, German politics
had officially considered the country as “non-immigrant.” This
paper described current relations between Germans and immigrants,
with a special focus on German majorities’ prejudice toward immigrant
minorities in their country.
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Dr. Ulrich Wagner |
Data from large scale surveys demonstrate
how many processes and theories used to explain ethnic prejudice can be
applied to understanding Germans’ prejudice against immigrants.
In particular, data show that an increase in
the immigrant population at the district level (county) corresponds
with reduced prejudice, as predicted by intergroup contact theory.
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Dr.
M. Brinton Lykes, Professor and Associate Director, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College
Photo: Dr. M. Brinton Lykes bc.edu/schools/lsoe/facultystaff/faculty/lykes.html
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Feminist-Infused
Participatory Action Research and Universal Human Rights: Challenges
from field work in rural Guatemala and urban USA (March 26, 2007)
Dr. Brinton Lykes has collaborated with women and their families in community-based participatory action research exploring the interface of indigenous cultural beliefs and practices and those of Western psychology and in the development of programs that respond to the effects of violence in war and post-war contexts of transition and transformation.
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She has worked for many years with mental health and human rights and women’s groups in Guatemala and, more recently, in South Africa and Northern Ireland. In each of these contexts she has also collaborated in the design and facilitation of training programs using participatory methodologies that draw heavily on the creative arts (drama, creative storytelling, art, etc.) and in direct service with women and child survivors of sexual and other forms of violence in war and in urban contexts in the USA.
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Dr. Demis Glasford, Assistant Professor of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The Struggle Within:
Responding to Ingroup Violation of Personal Values (March 2, 2007)
Dr. Glasford's research draws on cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) and social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978) to examine intragroup dissonance, a discrepancy between one's personal values and the behavior of one's ingroup that results in psychological discomfort.
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Photo: Dr. Demis Glasford jjay.cuny.edu/psychology/facultyprofile/glasford.asp |
Across three experiments, Dr. Glasford manipulated whether participants' ingroup violated a personal value, measured participants' emotional responses and use of dissonance-reduction strategies. As expected, individuals experienced psychological discomfort (but not negative self-directed emotion), when an ingroup, but not an outgroup, violated a personal value. In all experiments, disidentification was used as a dissonance-reduction strategy, such that psychological discomfort mediated the tendency to disidentify when the ingroup violated the personal value. Results are discussed with respect to social identity, cognitive dissonance theory and intragroup dynamics.
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| Dr. Emily Erikson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst. |
Source: umass.edu/sadri/people.html |
Central Authority and Order (November 17, 2006)
Strong central authorities are able to effectively manage costly defection, but are unable to adequately address lesser conflicts because of limits to their ability to monitor and enforce. We argue, counter-intuitively, that these limitations build cooperation and trust among subordinates: the limitations contribute to the production of order.
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Through an examination of case studies, we isolate and describe the mechanisms by which central authority produces order as they operate in varied settings. We find that central authority may be effective, but the majority of this effectiveness derives from an indirect influence on dyadic relations rather than direct intervention. We briefly explore implications for the operation of law as well as the production of generalized trust.
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Dr. Erikson's research interests include economic integration, the role of eastern markets in the development of capitalism, the relationship between organizational and network structure, and network dynamics. Her research incorporates multiple methods and uses a social mechanism-based explanatory approach to social processes. Recent research includes how organizations shape the expansion of foreign trade, the indirect effects of centralized authority on community-level relations, and the role of decentralized Asian markets in 17th-century market expansion. Her most recent publication, co-authored with Peter Bearman and published in AJS, traced the positive impact of employee malfeasance in the English East India Company on organizational growth and the construction of the first global trade network. This research was covered by UPI and Scientific American. In addition to her teaching and research activities, Professor Erikson serves as Associate Editor for Social Science History.
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