Taylor Garner

This research investigates women’s memories of state violence and the ways that women mobilize memories of the past to critique present violence and oppression and enact change in the future. The two contexts that this paper explores are the Argentinian dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories from 1967 to the present. This paper seeks to understand how women transmit and commemorate intergenerational memories of political violence through material and affective practices that constitute spaces of counter-memory. Women’s memories are particularly informative because not only are women victims of political violence, but their stories often challenge the dominant masculinist/nationalist narratives of political struggle. Women preserve integral social history through their oral stories, stories that can play important roles in resisting and recovering from violence. The intergenerational feature of the investigation demonstrates the multilayered construction of memories and examines the ways in which women reproduce, resist, and transform collective memories of violence. By putting the experiences of Argentinian and Palestinian women in conversation with each other, the research illuminates how women’s struggle to achieve justice or recognition within the context of violence and conflict is related to their struggle for justice and recognition more broadly.