7.18. Memory, Gender, and the Afterlives of Violence and Empire

In recent years, the term “usable past” has been introduced to describe the ways in which societies engage with history to serve their current political, social, and cultural needs. This paper examines how Hanna Frumkin Segal — a maskilah (enlightened woman) and Hebrew writer of Orthodox Jewish background from Eastern Europe — employed the notion of a usable past in her literary work. The discussion focuses on a novella she published in 1898 in HaYehoody, an Orthodox newspaper. The novella, titled “HaKedoshim” (“The Martyrs”), is set in the Jewish community of Worms during the Crusades. At its center stand two protagonists — a man and a woman — who respond to a historical crisis through active and heroic deeds, both giving their lives in devotion to the nation. Frumkin Segal constructs a usable past in a sophisticated way, operating simultaneously on two levels. At its explicit level, "HaKedoshim" reflects Frumkin Segal’s attempt to shape Jewish national memory by highlighting the values of heroism, solidarity, and resilience in the face of danger and adversity. This literary move was not unique: the theme of the Crusades was frequently adapted in modern Hebrew literature to contemporary needs and ideological trends, particularly in the aftermath of the pogroms of 1881–1882 and the subsequent rise of the Jewish national movement. At the implicit level, however, Frumkin Segal uses the novella to convey subtle messages within the conservative, male dominated intellectual environment to which she belonged. By placing a female heroine at the center of the narrative, the novella underscores the role of women in society and their significant participation in dramatic historical events. It suggests that women, no less than men, are capable of — and entitled to — stepping beyond the domestic sphere into the public arena and contributing to collective national

This interdisciplinary study focuses on the gendered aspects of Circassian identity and memory in Turkey, questions of belonging, repatriation and ontological security. Women’s experiences in diaspora differ significantly from those of men. They often face intersecting forms of marginalisation: ethnic, gendered, legal, and migratory, which shapes their everyday lives and sense of belonging. Being part of Turkish society additionally affects Circassian women’s well being and transforms national identity. RQ: How do Circassian women in Turkey negotiate their belonging and identity in response to changing socio political conditions, and how do their practices contribute to maintaining or reinterpreting diasporic continuity? Objectives: 1) Examine whether the particular position of Circassian women in Turkey constrains their ability to achieve personal goals and find their own place within the host society; 2) Analyse the role of women in preserving and transforming identity; 3) Investigate how broader socio political conditions in Turkey shape Circassian women’s sense of belonging and ontological security. Methodology: This is a fieldwork study conducted in Turkey (Istanbul, Kayseri), where the biggest Circassian diaspora in the world resides. It combines feminist methods like life story interviews and Photovoice with expert interviews and ethnographic observations at community events. Data is analysed using thematic and feminist interpretive analysis. Reflexive diaries and adherence to Adyghe Khabze (traditional ethical code) ensures cultural sensitivity and ethical integrity. Theoretical framework includes intersectionality (Cho, Crenshaw, 2013), feminist security studies, a concept of ontological (in)security, fantasy (Eberle, 2019) in IR and imagined communities (Anderson, 2006). The project expects to reveal that Circassian women experience belonging as a process of continuous negotiation shaped by gendered expectations both in diaspora and in the host country, political and economic situation, personal success and the symbolic weight of the “imagined homeland” Caucasus. Women’s cultural roles simultaneously offer ontological security and reproduce gendered internal insecurities.

In Brazil, the term chacina denotes a massacre of three or more people within a short period. Urban chacinas are predominantly perpetrated by state agents against young, Black, poor men in the peripheries. This violence reveals a crisis in the state's Weberian monopoly on force and is consistently followed by victim-blaming, where victims are stigmatized as “involved in crime.” This paper investigates the sociological failure to acknowledge the victims' pain, which reproduces a cycle of silence and impunity. Anchored in Jeffrey Alexander's theory of cultural trauma, this paper uses the 2015 Chacina of Osasco and Barueri, a major death squad massacre in São Paulo's metropolitan area, as a case study. According to this theory, carrier groups must successfully project a narrative that establishes the nature of the pain, the victims, and the perpetrators. The methodology combines a discourse analysis of 2023 and 2024 public memorials with a framing analysis of major Brazilian media outlets to trace this narrative contestation. The findings reveal that while mothers of the victims and Black movements constructed a powerful narrative framing the event as a racist state crime, these carrier groups were marginalized. Dominant media frames implicitly justified the violence and whitewashed the perpetrators. Furthermore, state bureaucracy mediated and co-opted public memorials, diluting their oppositional potential. Consequently, commemorations failed to mobilize the local community, which remained influenced by the hegemonic narrative. The study concludes that the failure to forge a recognized cultural trauma stems from structural racism within state and media systems, which systematically obstructs the recognition of Black pain.