“Truth-Telling: Violence, Memory and Human Rights in Latin America. A multidisciplinary Approach”

Lead researcher: Lucero de Vivanco

This project is funded by the "Programa de Cooperación Internacional" (PCI) from CONICYT (REDES150021) and sponsored by the "Centro de Ética y Reflexión Social" of the Universidad Alberto Hurtado.

Valid: 2016-2017

The project presented here has the general objective of expanding and consolidating an international network of researchers and research centers –and formation programs for graduate students associated with them– whose concerns,

from various disciplinary perspectives and high scientific standards, converge on issues related to political violence, social memory and human rights in Latin America, considering always contextual (political, historical), cultural and ethnic dimensions.

The representation of political violence in its most extreme manifestations, both in the Southern Cone dictatorships as in other regions of Latin America where there have been systematic violations of human rights, has been the object of numerous literary elaborations and historiographical reflections. These representations interpret the social and cultural rationales that led to extreme violence and, at the same time, they contribute to forge a memory of events that is indispensable for the consolidation of true democratic practices and institutions.

Therefore, the need for further progress in studies on political violence, human rights and social memory today is undeniable. The global nature of these phenomena, the various languages in which they are expressed, the multiple dimensions of social issues that compose its complexity, and the necessary consideration of an ethical dimension, requires that the approach be not only disciplinary but also multidisciplinary.

In the same way, it is highly relevant that the research that goes along with the growing recovery of social memory critically and permanently review the theoretical assumptions which ground these phenomena, the methodological tools available for their work, and the reflection models built upon it in other hemispheres and contexts.

The consolidation of a network that has been operating for some years in the field of literature and cultural studies, both research and formation of undergraduate and postgraduate students, and the enlargement of this network to other disciplines in Humanities and Social Sciences, will help to deepen the understanding of political violence, memory and human rights in Latin America, and will provide a space to reflect on the ethical and historical implications of these experiences.

Sponsor:

Centro de Ética y Reflexión Social, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, CHILE

Centers involved:

Centro de Ética y Reflexión Social, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, CHILE

Lucero de Vivanco

María Teresa Johansson

Constanza Vergara

Elizabeth Lira

Pedro Milos

Nicolás Rojas

Centre Écriture, Création, Représentation: Littératures et Arts de la Scène, Universidad Católica de Lovaina, BÉLGICA

Geneviève Fabry