Creating Peaceful Coexistence in a Context of Chronic Violence

Ph.D. Exit Seminar in the Graduate Field of Development Studies

Seminar

Creating Peaceful Coexistence in a Context of Chronic Violence: Masculinity, Intimate Violence, and Everyday Reconciliations in Post-conflict Burundi with Emily Hillenbrand

Abstract

Emily Hillenbrand's dissertation presents an ethnographic exploration about tackling “ordinary” domestic violence, within the extraordinary conditions of mass violence and extreme poverty in Burundi. It follows the story of the Abatangamuco, a unique “positive masculinities” development intervention that emerged in a brief moment of peace after Burundi’s civil war. Rooted in the ethics of transitional justice, the Abatangamuco applied a peace and reconciliation approach to the crisis of domestic violence and thwarted masculinity, which was notably unaddressed in the failed national-level peace plan. The Abatangamuco model has helped to reduce domestic violence, to construct new masculinity strategies based on nonviolence and relationships of mutual respect, and to create meaningful pathways to restore men’s social responsibilities and self-respect. The dissertation explores the historical moment and liberatory praxis that conditioned the emergence and social resonance of this evolving movement. It considers the ambiguous feminist implications of the approach, while situating it as an important legacy of peace in a history of chronic violence. Studying intrahousehold reconciliations through the lens of the Abatangamuco and a feminist perspective of everydayness highlights the ongoingness and intimacy of struggles for survival, peace, and justice in conditions of extreme precarity and structural violence.

About the candidate

Emily Hillenbrand is a sociologist whose research interests span three interrelated themes: the sociology of masculinities; intersectional inequalities within agrifood systems; and the engagements between feminist theory and gender and development discourses. Broadly, her research portfolio examines how intersectional inequalities interact with the dynamic forces of rural transformation, precarious livelihoods, and conflict to shape processes of gendered identity formation and possibilities for gender justice. She has expertise in feminist, qualitative and participatory research, gender-transformative approaches and research methods, and participatory curriculum development. Emily has a master’s degree in Women, Gender and Development from Institute for Social Studies (ISS) in the Netherlands and a B.A. in International Relations from Middlebury College, VT. She has worked for over 15 years as a gender specialist and researcher in agriculture and food security programs, primarily in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.