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Podcast: Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast
Episode: Sarah Federman and Ronald Niezen, "Narratives of Mass Atrocity: Victims and Perpetrators in the Aftermath" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
Description: Individuals can assume—and be assigned—multiple roles throughout a conflict: perpetrators can be victims, and vice versa; heroes can be reassessed as complicit and compromised. However, accepting this more accurate representation of the narrativized identities of violence presents a conundrum for accountability and justice mechanisms premised on clear roles. This book considers these complex, sometimes overlapping roles, as people respond to mass violence in various contexts, from international tribunals to NGO-based social movements. Bringing the literature on perpetration in conversation with the more recent field of victim studies, it suggests a new, more effective, and reflexive approach to enga...