Fractured Friendships: The Politics of Befriending in Conflict Zones
Fractured Friendships: The Politics of Befriending in Conflict Zones
by
Dr. Soibam Haripriya
(Fulbright Fellow)
Date & Time :-September 02, 2021, Thursday at 3.00 pm (IST)
About the Speaker:
Dr. Soibam Haripriya is a Fulbright Scholar. She was previously a FWO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Ghent University, Belgium. Her (edited) forthcoming book Homeward (2021) is published by Zubaan, New Delhi.
Abstract:
In this talk, the speaker tries to examine the manifestation of the culture of fear on friendships and kin relations, drawing attention to the predicament of living in violent places. Violent sites calibrate relationships of intimacy, be it the familial or friendship, differently. When the state covertly regulates friendships and surveils kinship, acts of mutual suspicion and betrayals, stand to jeopardize friendships. For women, it becomes more difficult to nurture friendship, as their lives are closely monitored in the name of safety and real threats of masculine militarized public space. In such fraught situations, kin relations and friendships seldom escape the scrutiny of the state/ non-state; nor can such relations avoid mutual suspicion and the anxious impulse of categorizing people into collaborators, state/non-state agents, or sympathizers of affiliated groups.