Combatting a Culture of Violence: Serbian Feminist Memory Activism

• In Event: 50662 - Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Framing and Remembering Conflict

Abstract

Since May 2023, Serbia has experienced mass protests against the country’s pervasive “culture of violence” (Galtung 1990). In line with scholarship on the linkages between denialistic collective memory and contemporary violence (Minow 2002; Göçek 2015; Savelsberg 2022), I contend that Serbia’s culture of violence is rooted in its denial of the Srebrenica genocide and other atrocities perpetrated by Serbs during the 1990s Yugoslav wars. However, an important and often overlooked aspect of this nexus is the role of gender. In the 1990s, resurgent patriarchy, militarized masculinity, and ethno-nationalism were used to prime the Serbian population for its wars of aggression (Cockburn 2013). In response, the feminist antimilitarist group Women in Black Serbia was formed and helped lead the country’s massive antiwar protest movement. Since the wars ended in 2001, Women in Black has continued to protest both genocide denial and ongoing societal militarism and ethno-nationalism, though they are met with gendered insults, attacks, and suppression. Through a case study of Women in Black’s feminist memory activism (Gutman 2017), this paper theorizes the relationships between post-war gendered power relations and denialistic collective memories of mass violence. Drawing on a discourse analysis of organizational archives, participant-observation at protests and meetings, and in-depth interviews with activists, I argue that a “culture of violence” that denies genocide and war crimes is co-constituted by resurgent patriarchy, gender inequality, and militarized masculinity.

Author

• Nikoleta Sremac, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities