A conversation between Richard English and Brad Evans focusing on the vital, painful relationship between terrorist violence, victims and disappearance.
Victims of non-state and terrorist violence still receive too little attention, with other people’s voices and experiences frequently obscuring them. Literal disappearance – all too often a tragedy inflicted on victims of such violence – can therefore be compounded by victims’ disappearance also from memory, debate and discussion.
Through consideration of many different cases and aspects of the subject, this conversation aims to provide an opportunity for important reflection and wide-ranging dialogue.
This event is part of the State of Disappearance project.
For more events, visit historiesofviolence.com.
Richard English is Director of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast. His books include Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (2003), Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland (2006) and Does Terrorism Work? A History (2016).
About the State of Disappearance Project
The State of Disappearance project is a collaborative response that brings together the arts, humanities, social sciences and wider advocacy groups to bring new attention to the multiple ways disappearance occurs. Started in 2017 by the projects co-directors Professor Brad Evans (Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Bath) and Visual Artist Chantal Meza, it asks what forced absence and human denial means for societies and how we might better understand such violence in the 21st Century?
The first phase of the project culminates in the State of Disappearance art exhibition, featuring 77 artworks on the theme by painter Chantal Meza. The exhibition will take place in Centrespace art gallery in the City of Bristol from 28 October to 8 November 2023 and will also coincide with the publication of a book with McGill-Queens University Press. The exhibition will kick off two weeks of public talks and panel discussions from renowned authorities, educating on a broad set of issues from enforced disappearance, the Holocaust, slavery, along with the challenges of finding the missing.
The State of Disappearance Art Exhibition is supported by Arts Council England National Lottery; the Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Bath; ESRC Festival of Social Sciences; the Global Insecurities Centre, University of Bristol; the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath; the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame; and Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. It is also partnered by Bristol Ideas; Locate International; Trebuchet Art Magazine; and The Philosopher.