The history of genocide and its aftermath cannot be understood without taking gender into account. As research on the history of the Holocaust and other genocides has demonstrated, genocidal violence has different but related effects on men and women, on gender relations and on gender hierarchies. Its processes have imposed new meanings on biological differences, femininity and masculinity, and on sexuality. Post-genocidal periods have witnessed the reconstitution of gender relations and the gendering of memory. Histories and memories of genocide are deeply gendered, both in their content and their silences.
In this conference we aim to bring together Holocaust scholars with experts in the emerging field of gender and genocide. 2015 will mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide and, accordingly, we aim to pay particular (but not exclusive) attention to research that focuses on its specific history and memory.

We welcome contributions from regions both in and outside Europe, as well as diverse approaches and perspectives that enhance our understanding of the histories and memories of the Armenian genocide. Papers that situate the gendered aspects of the Armenian genocide in the larger history of genocides and analyze it in relation to the Holocaust and other genocides are particularly welcome.

Central questions include (but are not limited to):
What is the function of gender in the exclusionary ideologies (antisemitism, racism) at work in different genocides?
How are genocidal discourses and processes shaped by regimes of gender and sexuality?
How far can queer approaches to genocide research in general and to the Armenian genocide in particular open up new perspectives?
How do scholars comprehend and theorize the different uses of sexual violence in genocides in general, and the Armenian genocide in particular?
How does gender frame responses (political, legal, literary, visual) to sexual violence? How can we analyze layers of gendered silencing around sexual violence?
How do we conceptualize the end of genocide? Who are the “survivors” of genocide? What are the different ways in which conceptions of “post-genocide” and “survival” are gendered?
How are “humanitarian interventions,” post-genocide processes and transitional justice gendered, sexualized, racialized and ethnicized?
What are the different ways in which gender operates within post-genocide discourses, historiographies, memory works and silences?
How is the Armenian genocide memorialized and gendered through monuments, museums, digital archives and other memory sites?
What current initiatives deal with or mobilize gendered memories of genocide? How do they contribute to or challenge genocide recognition and genocide denial?

Deadline for applications: November 30, 2014

Please send a title and abstract (max. 300 words) together with your contact information and a brief CV to:
Dr. Dilek Güven, Center for Research on Antisemitism: dilek.gueven@tu-berlin.de