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Researching sexual violence in the armed conflict of eastern DRC September 2012. My Congolese friend Marie-Noël, who runs a small, community-based NGO, welcomes us in Ruzizi, a border town between Rwanda and the DRC. We hop in her jeep and head for Bukavu. Five minutes later, the car is stopped. Two men have barricaded the … Continue reading
The challenges of researching armed actors in Eastern DRC # 3: dealing with the positionality of the research subject and the verification of fact The universal problem of uncovering the “truth”, or obtaining inter-subjectively shared representations of “reality” presents itself in a particularly acute manner in zones of conflict. In this respect, Caroline Nordstrom speaks … Continue reading
The challenges of researching armed actors in Eastern DRC: #2 Balancing the analysis of discourses and practices In general, human beings tend to justify their own acts, represent reality in a way that suits their interests, and develop rational and rhetorical strategies for coping with conflicting or “inconvenient” information, like downplaying, ignoring, or twisting certain … Continue reading
The challenges of researching armed actors in Eastern DRC: #1 overcoming sensationalism and exoticism Certainly, it was the mixture of a deep fascination for the subject matter, an attraction to armed actors and an incurable penchant for thrill-seeking that drove me to dedicate my PhD research to the Congolese military and armed groups in … Continue reading
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