Difficulties in the Diaspora: The Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners of Liberia as a Bona Fide Group

• In Event: Group Communication across Global Contexts

Abstract

Based on my ethnographic observations of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s diaspora hearings in the United States, I use—and extend—the bona fide group perspective to examine and illuminate the difficulties the Commissioners faced in their work facilitating hearings and questioning participants. I show the relevance of group communication research to other disciplines, and how studying different types of groups can enlarge and deepen extant theorizing in group communication research.

Author

• Courtney Cole, Ohio University