Projects > Living Histories

The knowledge and meaning that people derive from experiences of political violence come into existence largely through stories that are called testimonies. A survivor gives an account of what they endured or witnessed to another, who listens, and then perhaps documents, interprets, transmits or re-tells the story. The multiple disciplines and institutions that are concerned with addressing the consequences of political violence struggle over how to use what is communicated in and through the testimonies. Many see testimonies as helpful, whereas others see them as problematic and even dangerous. For some, the testimony is approaches as a story whereas for others the testimony is basically a vector of information. Some testimonies give accounts of experience that are of course tied to what has been destroyed, lost or damaged, but as stories they also remain so much a part of the living. For that reason we believe that efforts to address the consequences of political violence would be strengthened if based on a better sense of the testimony as a story, and in particular, one of living history. To promote the production, use and study of survivors testimonies as living histories, the center sponsors testimony focused projects, dialogues, and scholarship. The co-investigators of the Living Histories project are Stevan Weine, Vaughn Fayle, and Nerina Muzurovic.