Susan Thomson
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 85261 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Susan Thomson |
| PRENOMES | Susan |
| SOBRENOME | Thomson |
| ASSINATURA | THOMSON S |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Hampshire College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2784-7338 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 29 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 206 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 26 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 3 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1998 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Pro- and Anti-Combattants
Associational life in Cape Town is a mechanism for migrants from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to find belonging in South Africa. We trace the internal politics of associational membership from 2000 to 2019 to illustrate how membership in eastern Congolese associations has minimized community ties to other foreign Africans and South Africans. An increase in election violence in the DRC, divided into pro- and anti-combattant camps…
Understanding suicide clusters through exploring self-harm
There was a highly publicised cluster of at least ten suicides in South Wales, United Kingdom, in 2007-2008. We carried out a qualitative descriptive study using cross-case thematic analysis to investigate the experiences and narratives of eight individuals who lived in the area where the cluster occurred and who survived an episode of near-fatal self-harm at the time of the cluster. Interviews were conducted from 01.01.2015 to 31.12.2015. All in…
Field Research in Africa
Introduction
Race, Nation, and Resistance to State Symbolic Power in Rwanda since the 1994 Genocide
The social categories “Hutu” and “Tutsi” have long been central to Rwandan politics, though never more so than during the 1994 genocide, when they formed the ultimate divide: kill (Hutu) or be killed (Tutsi). Since then, the Rwandan government has sought to eliminate these categories and replace them with a new, national identity category of “Rwandan.” This chapter draws on theories of state symbolic power and legibility to analyze how top-down p…
Introduction
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Reflexive Openness as Collaborative Methodology
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rwanda
A sobering study of the troubled African nation, both pre- and post-genocide, and its uncertain future The brutal civil war between Hutu and Tutsi factions in Rwanda ended in 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power and embarked on an ambitious social, political, and economic project to remake the devastated central-east African nation. Susan Thomson, who witnessed the hostilities firsthand, has written a provocative modern history of …
The Long Shadow of Genocide in Rwanda
Rather than addressing the trauma inflicted by genocidal violence, the ruling party has used a program of national ethnic unity and reconciliation to reinforce its political authority
When Men Grieve
To increase our understanding of the role gender plays in spousal loss, this qualitative study analyzes bereavement narratives of 33 recent widowers, aged 45-89 years, all of whom accessed the National Widowers' Organization website. In particular, we look at how these widowers' lives changed, the impact of changing gender norms, and coping strategies. To illuminate the temporal process evident in these narratives, we utilize Silverman's nonlinea…
Marching Through Suffering
Sundberg, Molly
Anthropos , Seite 303 - 304
Civic Agency in Africa
Examines the variety of mostly unorganized and informal ways in which Africans exercise agency and resist state power in the 21st century, through citizen action and popular culture, and how the relationship between ruler and ruled is being reframed. The recent eruption of popular protests across North Africa and the Middle East has reopened academic debate on the meaning and strategies of resistance in the 21st century. This book argues that Wes…
Ethnic politics and democratic transition in Rwanda
David E. Kiwuwa has written an ambitious book that seeks to theorize transitions from war to democratic governance in deeply divided ethnic societies. To do so, he employs the case-study method to
Emotional and Ethical Challenges for Field Research in Africa
Academic literature rarely gives an account of the ethical challenges and emotional pitfalls the researcher is confronted with before, during and after being in the field. Giving personal accounts, th
Stuck
Reviewed by: Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood by Marc Sommers Susan Thomson Marc Sommers. Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press. xxiv + 281pp. Photographs. Maps. Tables. Bibliography. Index. $22.95. Paper. Marc Sommers has written a remarkable book on the plight of youth in postgenocide Rwanda. Sommers’s findings draw upon semistructured interviews with central and l…
Agency as silence and muted voice
This article analyses the problem-solving networks of young refugee women from Somalia between the ages of 13 and 19 through the concepts of 'muted voice' and 'silence'. Based on life history interviews and participant observation with young refugee women living in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Nairobi in 2011 and 2012, it investigates the ways in which young Somali women exercise their individual agency through carefully selected strategies of …
Aids and rural livelihoods
AIDS and rural livelihoods: dynamics and diversity in sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Anke Niehof, Gabriel Rugalema and Stuart Gillespie, London, Earthscan, 2010, xii + 234 pp., ISBN 978-1-84971-126
La politique d'unité et de réconciliation nationale au Rwanda
Cet article se penche les gestes quotidiens de résistance des Rwandais ordinaires vis-à-vis de la politique d’unité nationale et de réconciliation mise en place par le gouvernement à la suite du génocide. Il suit trois formes de résistance au quotidien – le positionnement en marge, le conformisme irrévérent, le mutisme détaché, adoptées par certains lorsqu’ils interagissent, évitent ou se confrontent aux exigences étatiques liées cette politique.…
Residential treatment for sexually exploited adolescent girls
Whispering truth to power
The government in post-genocide Rwanda stakes its moral claim to legitimacy on a policy of national unity and reconciliation, claiming to create a 'Rwanda for all Rwandans'. This article investigates peasant resistance to this policy. Focusing on everyday acts of resistance among the rural poor, it demonstrates that despite the appearance of widespread popular support, many peasant Rwandans consider the various mechanisms of national unity and re…
Rhetorical legacies of leadership
Comparing pre- and post-genocide Rwanda, this article argues that clear continuities exist between the regimes of Juvénal Habyarimana and Paul Kagame. Both have projected a remarkably similar image of 'benevolent leadership'. Presenting themselves as harbingers of an 'improved' or 'new' Rwanda, both leaderships have claimed to be best able and willing to guide Rwanda along the right path to peace, security, ethnic unity and development. 'Benevole…
The Darker Side of Transitional Justice
In this article, I argue that the praise of legal and political analysts who perceive Rwanda'sgacacacourts as a model of locally grounded and culturally relevant transitional justice is unfounded without consideration of the broader power dynamics in which justice is delivered. Drawing on life history interviews with 37 Rwandan peasants resident in the south-west of the country, I argue that the claims of the Rwandan government that itsgacacacour…
Law, Power and Justice
In this article, we untangle the relationships among law, power and justice as they impact on the lives of ordinary Rwandans brought into contact with the state and local officials through the gacaca process. Drawing on 37 life-history interviews conducted in 2006, we find that gacaca reinforces a particular version of postgenocide justice that renders the average Rwandan citizen largely powerless over individual processes of reconciliation while…
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Getting Close to Rwandans since the Genocide
Research with people in highly politicized research settings illuminates the gap between the images that most African governments strive to represent and the sociopolitical realities of everyday life. This article discusses the opportunities and challenges of doing research in postgenocide Rwanda and is a useful resource for researchers contemplating their own projects under such conditions, whether in Rwanda or elsewhere. It discusses the import…
The Darker Side of Transitional Justice
In this article, I argue that the praise of legal and political analysts who perceive Rwanda'sgacacacourts as a model of locally grounded and culturally relevant transitional justice is unfounded without consideration of the broader power dynamics in which justice is delivered. Drawing on life history interviews with 37 Rwandan peasants resident in the south-west of the country, I argue that the claims of the Rwandan government that itsgacacacour…
Whispering truth to power
The government in post-genocide Rwanda stakes its moral claim to legitimacy on a policy of national unity and reconciliation, claiming to create a 'Rwanda for all Rwandans'. This article investigates peasant resistance to this policy. Focusing on everyday acts of resistance among the rural poor, it demonstrates that despite the appearance of widespread popular support, many peasant Rwandans consider the various mechanisms of national unity and re…
Rwanda
A sobering study of the troubled African nation, both pre- and post-genocide, and its uncertain future The brutal civil war between Hutu and Tutsi factions in Rwanda ended in 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power and embarked on an ambitious social, political, and economic project to remake the devastated central-east African nation. Susan Thomson, who witnessed the hostilities firsthand, has written a provocative modern history of …
Rhetorical legacies of leadership
Comparing pre- and post-genocide Rwanda, this article argues that clear continuities exist between the regimes of Juvénal Habyarimana and Paul Kagame. Both have projected a remarkably similar image of 'benevolent leadership'. Presenting themselves as harbingers of an 'improved' or 'new' Rwanda, both leaderships have claimed to be best able and willing to guide Rwanda along the right path to peace, security, ethnic unity and development. 'Benevole…
Law, Power and Justice
In this article, we untangle the relationships among law, power and justice as they impact on the lives of ordinary Rwandans brought into contact with the state and local officials through the gacaca process. Drawing on 37 life-history interviews conducted in 2006, we find that gacaca reinforces a particular version of postgenocide justice that renders the average Rwandan citizen largely powerless over individual processes of reconciliation while…
Children's understanding of extended identity
As adults, we appreciate that judgments of us may reflect our associations with other people. This article examines the development of "extended identity" (G.R. Semin & K. Papadopoulou, 1989) in children between 5 and 11 years. In Experiment 1, children were presented with hypothetical scenarios in which they imagined a close associate had committed a rule violation in a highly public context. Only the older children judged that they would be eva…
Agency as silence and muted voice
This article analyses the problem-solving networks of young refugee women from Somalia between the ages of 13 and 19 through the concepts of 'muted voice' and 'silence'. Based on life history interviews and participant observation with young refugee women living in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Nairobi in 2011 and 2012, it investigates the ways in which young Somali women exercise their individual agency through carefully selected strategies of …
Ethnic Twa and Rwandan National Unity and Reconciliation Policy
My [local official] doesn't understand that my people died because of the events [of 1994] and that I have even more problems that need solutions, since they say peace and unity have been restored
Reflexive Openness as Collaborative Methodology
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Residential treatment for sexually exploited adolescent girls
Children's understanding of extended identity
As adults, we appreciate that judgments of us may reflect our associations with other people. This article examines the development of "extended identity" (G.R. Semin & K. Papadopoulou, 1989) in children between 5 and 11 years. In Experiment 1, children were presented with hypothetical scenarios in which they imagined a close associate had committed a rule violation in a highly public context. Only the older children judged that they would be eva…
Ethnic Twa and Rwandan National Unity and Reconciliation Policy
My [local official] doesn't understand that my people died because of the events [of 1994] and that I have even more problems that need solutions, since they say peace and unity have been restored
Law, Power and Justice
In this article, we untangle the relationships among law, power and justice as they impact on the lives of ordinary Rwandans brought into contact with the state and local officials through the gacaca process. Drawing on 37 life-history interviews conducted in 2006, we find that gacaca reinforces a particular version of postgenocide justice that renders the average Rwandan citizen largely powerless over individual processes of reconciliation while…
Local Power Relations and Household Gender Dynamics
(2010). Local Power Relations and Household Gender Dynamics: Assessing Rwanda's Claim to Universal HIV/AIDS Treatment in Context. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 44, Gender, HIV/AIDS, and Human Security in Africa, pp. 552-578
Getting Close to Rwandans since the Genocide
Research with people in highly politicized research settings illuminates the gap between the images that most African governments strive to represent and the sociopolitical realities of everyday life. This article discusses the opportunities and challenges of doing research in postgenocide Rwanda and is a useful resource for researchers contemplating their own projects under such conditions, whether in Rwanda or elsewhere. It discusses the import…
La politique d'unité et de réconciliation nationale au Rwanda
Cet article se penche les gestes quotidiens de résistance des Rwandais ordinaires vis-à-vis de la politique d’unité nationale et de réconciliation mise en place par le gouvernement à la suite du génocide. Il suit trois formes de résistance au quotidien – le positionnement en marge, le conformisme irrévérent, le mutisme détaché, adoptées par certains lorsqu’ils interagissent, évitent ou se confrontent aux exigences étatiques liées cette politique.…
Residential treatment for sexually exploited adolescent girls
Whispering truth to power
The government in post-genocide Rwanda stakes its moral claim to legitimacy on a policy of national unity and reconciliation, claiming to create a 'Rwanda for all Rwandans'. This article investigates peasant resistance to this policy. Focusing on everyday acts of resistance among the rural poor, it demonstrates that despite the appearance of widespread popular support, many peasant Rwandans consider the various mechanisms of national unity and re…
Rhetorical legacies of leadership
Comparing pre- and post-genocide Rwanda, this article argues that clear continuities exist between the regimes of Juvénal Habyarimana and Paul Kagame. Both have projected a remarkably similar image of 'benevolent leadership'. Presenting themselves as harbingers of an 'improved' or 'new' Rwanda, both leaderships have claimed to be best able and willing to guide Rwanda along the right path to peace, security, ethnic unity and development. 'Benevole…
The Darker Side of Transitional Justice
In this article, I argue that the praise of legal and political analysts who perceive Rwanda'sgacacacourts as a model of locally grounded and culturally relevant transitional justice is unfounded without consideration of the broader power dynamics in which justice is delivered. Drawing on life history interviews with 37 Rwandan peasants resident in the south-west of the country, I argue that the claims of the Rwandan government that itsgacacacour…
Aids and rural livelihoods
AIDS and rural livelihoods: dynamics and diversity in sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Anke Niehof, Gabriel Rugalema and Stuart Gillespie, London, Earthscan, 2010, xii + 234 pp., ISBN 978-1-84971-126
Emotional and Ethical Challenges for Field Research in Africa
Academic literature rarely gives an account of the ethical challenges and emotional pitfalls the researcher is confronted with before, during and after being in the field. Giving personal accounts, th
Stuck
Reviewed by: Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood by Marc Sommers Susan Thomson Marc Sommers. Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press. xxiv + 281pp. Photographs. Maps. Tables. Bibliography. Index. $22.95. Paper. Marc Sommers has written a remarkable book on the plight of youth in postgenocide Rwanda. Sommers’s findings draw upon semistructured interviews with central and l…
Agency as silence and muted voice
This article analyses the problem-solving networks of young refugee women from Somalia between the ages of 13 and 19 through the concepts of 'muted voice' and 'silence'. Based on life history interviews and participant observation with young refugee women living in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Nairobi in 2011 and 2012, it investigates the ways in which young Somali women exercise their individual agency through carefully selected strategies of …
Civic Agency in Africa
Examines the variety of mostly unorganized and informal ways in which Africans exercise agency and resist state power in the 21st century, through citizen action and popular culture, and how the relationship between ruler and ruled is being reframed. The recent eruption of popular protests across North Africa and the Middle East has reopened academic debate on the meaning and strategies of resistance in the 21st century. This book argues that Wes…
Ethnic politics and democratic transition in Rwanda
David E. Kiwuwa has written an ambitious book that seeks to theorize transitions from war to democratic governance in deeply divided ethnic societies. To do so, he employs the case-study method to
Sundberg, Molly
Anthropos , Seite 303 - 304
The Long Shadow of Genocide in Rwanda
Rather than addressing the trauma inflicted by genocidal violence, the ruling party has used a program of national ethnic unity and reconciliation to reinforce its political authority
When Men Grieve
To increase our understanding of the role gender plays in spousal loss, this qualitative study analyzes bereavement narratives of 33 recent widowers, aged 45-89 years, all of whom accessed the National Widowers' Organization website. In particular, we look at how these widowers' lives changed, the impact of changing gender norms, and coping strategies. To illuminate the temporal process evident in these narratives, we utilize Silverman's nonlinea…
Marching Through Suffering
Rwanda
A sobering study of the troubled African nation, both pre- and post-genocide, and its uncertain future The brutal civil war between Hutu and Tutsi factions in Rwanda ended in 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power and embarked on an ambitious social, political, and economic project to remake the devastated central-east African nation. Susan Thomson, who witnessed the hostilities firsthand, has written a provocative modern history of …
Field Research in Africa
Introduction
Race, Nation, and Resistance to State Symbolic Power in Rwanda since the 1994 Genocide
The social categories “Hutu” and “Tutsi” have long been central to Rwandan politics, though never more so than during the 1994 genocide, when they formed the ultimate divide: kill (Hutu) or be killed (Tutsi). Since then, the Rwandan government has sought to eliminate these categories and replace them with a new, national identity category of “Rwandan.” This chapter draws on theories of state symbolic power and legibility to analyze how top-down p…
Introduction
Sociology (22 obras) · Political science (21 obras) · Law (15 obras) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (13 obras) · Psychology (11 obras) · Politics (10 obras) · Geography (7 obras) · Law (7 obras) · Cambodian History and Society (6 obras) · Gender Studies (6 obras)