The Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Initiative (PCRes) is a research initiative at the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley.
PCRes undertakes critical and formative research in response to urgent questions of social transformation. Interdisciplinary in practice and rooted in local knowledge, PCRes contends with quotidian and systemic conditions of oppression at the contested intersections of political conflict, gendered and attendant sexualized violences, and people’s rights. PCRes seeks to work in solidarity with those who live with and intervene on institutionalized and collective social suffering, and with decolonial responses and movements. PCRes inquires into the capillaries and relations of power--temporal and spatial--that are prohibitive and productive, constituting, securitizing, and circumscribing forms of knowledge-power, subjectivity, and governance. Its programs bear witness to how those affected/those “Othered” live with social suffering, assimilation, elimination, and dispossession, and death-bound conditions, and ameliorate their effects.
About PCRes
ENABLING CRITICAL THOUGHT AND INQUIRY
The Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, instituted in April 2012 at the Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business, was precursor to the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Research Initiative. After completion of its first and successful phase, the project movedto the Center for Race and Gender (CRG) in January 2016, to further enabl interdisciplinary commitments in the next phase of its work. A pioneering, interdisciplinary research center, CRG houses research initiatives and working groups concerned with race and gender (as well as coloniality and other relations of power), allowing them to develop freely and flourish.
PCRes investigates structures of dominance and their (trans)national apparatus, using violence as a category of analysis. It works to enable methods and mechanisms for social justice and accountability, and psychosocial healing. PCRes undertakes the work of archiving and memorialization drawing on diverse imaginaries and situated and comparative contexts. PCRes focuses on issues of majoritarianism and minoritism (in particular, casteism and Islamomisia), “homeland” and unbelonging, and cultural nationalism as they interact with nation-making, states of siege and emergency, militarism and exception, political conflict and transformation, and the racialization of difference. The Initiative works with collaborative networks of victimized-survivor-subjects, scholars, and academic and civil society leaders and institutions. PCRes focuses on the centrality of political and foundational violence in the contested regions and nation-states of the post/colony, with particular emphasis on cultures, areas, and regions of South Asia.
Conflict-based and upheaval-ridden political economies witness the dramatic amplification of social inequities under neoliberal, majoritarian states. State and deep state violences in conflict and upheaval are disbursed through “extrajudicial” means and those authorized by law and politics. Targeted communities and decolonial movements, too, use violence as response. Death and social death are memorialized via language and iconography.
How are archaeologies of violence illustrative of the gendered, racialized and religionized dynamics of minoritization? How are the conditions and events of violence gendered, heteronormative, and sexualized? How do assemblages of racialization and gendering constitute death-bound subjects? How is violence used to sustain and re-work the minoritization of an Other? What critical practices of mourning, counter-memory, and the sacred emerge in response to a politics of violence that agentizes multiple relations to justice, struggle, difference, and accountability?
Students: PCRes provides internship opportunities for exceptional graduate students and select undergraduate students from UC Berkeley and other institutions, and from local communities. The Research Initiative engages age-appropriate youth from affected communities in the work of documenting remembrance, and creating an archive and curated presentations.
People of PCRes
Title | Author | Year | Publication type |
---|---|---|---|
BREAKING WORLDS: Religion, Law and Citizenship in Majoritarian India; The Story of Assam | Angana P. Chatterji; Mihir Desai; Harsh Mander; Abdul Kalam Azad | 2021 | Monograph, 2021 |
Gendered and Sexual Violence in and beyond South Asia | Angana P. Chatterji | 2016 | Journal Article, 2016 |
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES & INTERNS
PCRes is generously assisted by:
- Researchers, Student Interns and Externs from UC Berkeley, Stanford University, South Asia, and elsewhere
- Research Associate: Pei Wu, Independent Scholar
PARTNERS
Academic Institutions:
- Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley
- Stanford University Libraries
- Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University
- Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research, Columbia University (Between 2013 – 2017)
- Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University (Between 2013 – 2017)
- International Human Rights Law Clinic, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley (Between 2013 – 2015)
- International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, Stanford University Law School (Between 2012-2014)
International and Diaspora Civil Society Organizations:
- Rafto Foundation for Human Rights
- Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Philippines
- Asian Legal Resource Center, Hong Kong (holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, United Nations) (Between 2012 – 2015)
- Indian American Muslim Council (Between 2012 – 2015)
South Asia Civil Society Organizations:
- Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, Jammu & Kashmir
- Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai
- Khalra Mission Organization, Punjab (Between 2013-2015)
- Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network (Between 2012-2013)
- Prashant: Center for Human Rights, Justice, and Peace, Gujarat (Between 2013-2015)
INITIATORY ADVISORY GROUP (2012-2017)
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Roxanna Altholz, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law & Associate Director, International Human Rights Law Clinic, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
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Betsy Apple, Advocacy Director, Open Society Justice Initiative, New York
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Rajvinder Singh Bains, Counsel, Punjab High Court and Haryana High Court
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Patrick Ball, Executive Director, Human Rights Data Analysis Group, San Francisco
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Elazar Barkan, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Director of SIPA’s Human Rights Concentration & Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University
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Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English & Director of the Humanities Center, Harvard University
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Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, School of Public Health & Director of Research, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
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Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy and Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
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Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
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Shashi Buluswar, Development and Human Rights Specialist and Founding Co-chair, Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, from 2012-2015
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Urvashi Butalia, Author, Co-founder of Kali for Women, and Director of Zubaan, Delhi
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Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature & Co-director of the Program of Critical Theory, University of California, Berkeley
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Richard M. Buxbaum, Jackson H. Ralston Professor Emeritus of International Law, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
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Andrik Cardenas, Former Associate Director, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
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Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, Columbia University
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Charlie Clements, Faculty, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Former Executive Director (2009-2015), Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School, Harvard University
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David Cohen, Director, WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford Global Studies, Stanford University, & Visiting Professor in the Graduate School, University of California, Berkeley; and Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai`i
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Veena Das, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor, Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University
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Malathi de Alwis, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo
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Mihir Desai, Senior Counsel, Mumbai High Court and Supreme Court of India
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Laurel E. Fletcher, Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
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Bijo Francis, Executive Director, Asia Legal Resource Center, Hong Kong
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Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
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Pamela M. Graham, Director, Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research and Director of Global Studies, Lehman Social Sciences Library, Columbia University
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Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS, New York
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Inderpal Grewal, Professor, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Yale University
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Thomas Bolm Hansen, Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor in South Asian Studies, Professor in Anthropology, and Director of Center for South Asia, Stanford University
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Parvez Imroz, Counsel, Jammu & Kashmir High Court and President, Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, Srinagar
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Abdul R. JanMohamed, Professor, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley
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Isfundiar Kasuri, Program Director, Justice Project Pakistan
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Mallika Kaur, Human Rights and Gender Specialist and Director of Programs, Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, from 2012-2015
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Amitava Kumar, Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English, Vassar College
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Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
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Harsh Mander, Director, Center for Equity Studies, Delhi
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Jaykumar Menon, Legal Expert and Professor of Practice, McGill University
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Ritu Menon, Writer, Co-founder of Kali for Women, and Publisher of Women Unlimited, Delhi
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Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Sociology, and the Cultural Foundations of Education & Dean’s Professor of the Humanities, Syracuse University
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Binalakshmi Nepram, Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, Delhi and Manipur
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Khurram Parvez, Program Coordinator, Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, Srinagar
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Sudhir Pattnaik, Civil Society Leader and Editor of Samadrusti, a human rights news magazine, Bhubaneswar
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C. Ryan Perkins, South Asian Studies Librarian, Stanford University
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Jyoti Puri, Professor of Sociology, Simmons College
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Paul Rabinow, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
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Laura Ring, Cataloger and Southern Asia Librarian, University of Chicago
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Kathy Roberts, Legal Director, Center for Justice and Accountability
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Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
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Richard Rudd, Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, Berkeley
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Jeremy Sarkin, Professor of Law, University of South Africa and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Nova University Law School, Lisbon, Portugal & Former Chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
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Stefan Schmitt, Director, International Forensic Program, Physicians for Human Rights
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Kim Thuy Seelinger, Director, Sexual Violence Program, Human Rights Center, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Artist, Curator, Raqs Media Collective, New Delhi
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Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai
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Dina Siddiqi, Professor, Anthropology Collective and Economics and Social Sciences Department, BRAC University, Dhaka
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Nora Silver, Faculty Director, Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business, University of California, BerkeleyKhatharya Um, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Chair, Peace and Conflict Studies & Faculty Academic Director, Berkeley Study Abroad, University of California, Berkeley