The Afterlives of Genocide Archives: The Politics of the ICTR's Archive and Knowledge Making in Rwanda

The ICTR's archive contains over 4,000 linear metres of documents, offering a window into the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as captured by the testimony of 3,200 witnesses, and further representing the ICTR's institutional memory. Despite the richness of the archive, scholars have yet to investigate the practice and politics of knowledge production within these transitional justice institutions, instead focusing on how they politically intervene in the post-conflict landscape. This project rectifies this and details the politics of the archive, how different actors were permitted to contribute to the production of knowledge at the ICTR, and what and who the archive and tribunal as a whole are for.

This proposal consolidates this research as I prepare for a large early career research grant. First, the project will strengthen the theoretical basis of the research. Working with Prof. Aradau (a scholar at the forefront of critical IR) as co-mentor, I will interrogate the relationship between Foucault's understanding of the archive, and conceptualisation of the archive developed through my project, as I examine the archive as a site where memory, agency, and politics are contested. This offers an intellectual contribution to IR and will clearly situate my research within critical IR. In line with this, I will produce two journal articles, 'Archives of Knowledge', and 'Witnessing Genocide' and secure a book deal with CUP.

Improving my publication record will also strengthen my application for an ESRC New Investigators (NI) award, the ultimate goal of this post-doc. Whilst my PhD research examined the way in which the archive was constructed, the NI proposal will explore the archive's afterlife. There are four strands to this: agency (how the trials affected the witnesses that participated in them, and how, in turn, the witnesses effected the trials); memory (how the archive influences how the genocide is remembered), responsibility (how the archive influences how law is practiced globally) and power (how the archive influences how actor's act in the 'real world'). Prof. Gow, who has secured numerous large research grants, will provide the guidance required in order to produce a successful application.

In developing the NI bid, I will conduct a preliminary research trip to the ICTR and Rwanda. This will allow me to, first, gain access to witnesses that participated in the trials (who remain protected by the tribunal) and, second, to design the NI bid in dialogue with the intended beneficiaries (both the tribunal and the witnesses) to ensure maximum impact. Returning to the ICTR, where I was a legal research in 2015, will also mean that I can continue to work an ICTR legacy project, the Genocide Story Project (GSP), the tribunal's official history of the genocide.

As such, the post-doc and the proposed NI will continue to develop my collaborative approach to research. To further this, I will work with an artist 'consultant' in order to integrate a significant art project into the NI bid. This will create a strong pathway to impact, both for the artist and the wider group of intended beneficiaries (such as the general public, former witnesses and legal practitioners) and enrichen the research design as a whole. Prototype artworks can be produced in the lifespan of this ESRC post-doc, which can also be used more immediately to engage with non-academic audiences.

This proposal has immediate and long-term impact. I will complete the GSP. Second, the collaboration with an artist will have impact both on the artist and, as a consequence of a series of exhibitions, the wider public. Long term, the realisation of the NI will, first, address the continued lack of information about how these processes affect the witnesses involved and offer a significant critique of the tribunal's engagement activities and role in post-conflict transformation. This will lead to a series of recommendations for ways practices can be improved upon.