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National Science Foundation Award #0514519

Dissertation Research: Resilience in Rwandan Women's Genocide Survivor Networks

Investigator(s):

Janet McGrath (PI)

Sponsor:

Case Western Reserve University, OH 44106 2163684510

Start Date/Expiration Date

2005-09-01 to 2006-08-31 (amended 2005-08-26)

Awarded Amount to Date:

$3,940

Abstract: Rape was used systematically as a weapon during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, directly affecting upwards of 200,000 women and contributing to the destruction of Rwandan society. In the province of Butare, two networks of Rwandan women genocide survivors have emerged who include genocide-rape survivors among their members: Abasa (a network composed entirely of women genocide survivors who identify as "genocide-rape survivors") and AVEGA (a larger network of women genocide survivors who identify as "genocide widows", many of whom are also genocide-rape survivors). The cultural processes through which identities and social relationships are reconstructed in post-conflict settings after traumatic experience are not fully understood. However, it has been suggested that resilience is a context dependent process arising from the operation of basic human adaptation systems characterized by reintegration in response to disruption. This dissertation research by a medical anthropologist from Case Western Reserve University examines the hypothesis that the process of resilience among survivors of genocide- and war-related rape relates to emerging cultural patterns of social recovery in post-conflict settings. Participant-observation in the networks, interviewing, and key informant shadowing will be used to compare the process of resilience among the women in the Abasa and AVEGA networks. The expected results of this research will elucidate how identity shapes the biocultural process of resilience after the extreme experience of genocide-rape, and in turn reveal how resilience among genocide-rape survivors patterns the "remaking" of Rwandan society post-conflict. In addition to contributing to the training of a female U.S. graduate student and to the research training of a Rwandan graduate student, the broader impacts of the research project will be to inform future psychosocial interventions with war-affected populations. Such interventions could potentially support health, social, and economic recovery efforts in post-genocide Rwanda, as well as other post-conflict settings where genocide- and/or war-related rape is being (or has been) used as a weapon.

NSF Org:

BCS - Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences

Award Number:

0514519

Award Instrument:

Standard Grant

Program Manager:

Deborah Winslow
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences

NSF Program(s):

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Field Application(s):

Human Subjects

Program Reference Code(s):

COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM, 9179

Program Element Code(s):

1390