Reflections on Resilience and Coping in the Aftermath of Mass Violence

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This talk will be presented online using Zoom. Registration is required, before 3:00 pm on Thursday, December 3, 2020. Log in information for Zoom will be emailed to those who have registered by 3:00 pm on Thursday, December 3, 2020.

If you have not received the link, make certain to check your account's inbox categories, tabs, junk, and spam folder.

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/BQooJmWzoOs

Speaker:  Friederike Mieth, PhD, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany

Date: Thursday, 03 December 2020

Location:  Online meeting via Zoom
Time: 7:00 pm

About the talk:

Reflections on Resilience and Coping in the Aftermath of Mass Violence 

In the past decade or more, the term “resilience“ has gained considerable popularity in many disciplines, including debates on peace and conflict issues. In this presentation, Dr. Friederike Mieth will share some of her findings from her previous research in Sierra Leone, where she investigated how ordinary citizens coped with the after effects of the 1991-2002 civil war in their everyday lives. She will discuss how imagination, hope, religious beliefs, self-regulation, and other individual and collective strategies helped Sierra Leoneans cope with their experiences and live in peaceful coexistence after the conflict.  On a more general level these findings show how human beings can draw on existing resources to deal with extreme situations. Such observations are insightful when reflecting on how we think and talk about people who are affected by violence, conflict, or any other potentially traumatizing events.  Since many prior debates and programs are based on assumptions of vulnerability, this presentation will alternately focus on identifying strengths and building upon them.

About the speaker:

Dr. Friederike Mieth is a researcher and consultant with a specialization in conflict transformation. Her research has focused on perceptions of violence, dealing with the past and the impact of transitional justice in Sub-Sahara Africa. She is the co-editor of Transitional Justice Theories (Routledge, 2014) and The German Compensation Program for Forced Labor: Practice and Experiences (Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, 2017). Friederike was a fellow at the American University in Washington, DC, and the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, Germany. She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies from the Philipps University Marburg, Germany. Currently, she is involved in founding an organization to promote reflective approaches in research and practice.