Rewriting the veteran: gender, geography, generation and the Algerian War

Using a case study of Algeria from 1962 to the present, this research analyses the relationship between nation building, gender and narratives of the past across different generations and geographical spaces. Its focus is not only on shifting state constructions of female veterans of Algeria's bloody war of decolonisation, but also an analysis of how these 'models' have been received, ignored or rewritten by both female veterans in rural and urban areas and younger generations. The research thus seeks to open up new directions in existing research on nation building in Algeria, which has tended to focus on the role of a predominantly male, urban, and now ageing, elite in the institutionalisation, dissemination and manipulation of a homogenous and unifying national history. The project also aims to provide a point of comparison with studies of nation building, notably in post-colonial states. Furthermore, the project has significant contemporary relevance in the context of the 2011 'Arab Spring', as it seeks to provide insights into the national and transnational frames of reference of a segment of Algerian youth, namely trainee teachers. Recent events have highlighted that this an underexplored area in Anglophone academia.

The main output of the project is a monograph entitled 'Rewriting the veteran: gender, geography, generation and the Algerian War.' The monograph will draw on a wide range of primary research which I have carried out, including interviews with female veterans in rural and urban areas, a case study of history students at the Ecole normale supérieure (teacher training college) in Algiers, archival research in France, Algeria, the UK and the US and an extensive study of the Algerian press. A linked period of institutional research leave before the proposed start of the Fellowship will enable me to complete targeted additional research in Algeria (including further research into student attitudes) and begin writing up. The six months of the award would thus be devoted to completing the monograph and disseminating the research. Chapter 1 of the monograph analyses the role of women in the Algerian War as both participants and symbols in nationalist and colonial propaganda. Chapter 2 examines the evolution of the female veteran in official history, with a particular emphasis on official discourse, national days, commemorative ceremonies, museums and monuments. Chapter 3 analyses how the female veteran has been used in counter-discourse, notably by feminist groups from the 1970s onwards, who in denouncing a 'post-independence betrayal' of female veterans rewrite these women as proto-feminist activists. It also seeks to explore how this has influenced much academic writing on women in the Algerian War. Chapters 4 and 5 use rural and urban case studies to explore how veterans themselves recount their past, the networks which emerge, the forms transmission takes and the interactions between these women, their stories and the dominant narrative. Chapter 6 focuses on youth perceptions of female veterans and the teaching of history more broadly, with case studies (2007/2011) demonstrating how in the context of Islamism, globalisation and the demographic decline of the war generation, representations of veterans and war narratives have metamorphosed.

Through an evidence-based approach, the research thus seeks to develop a nuanced account of the contradictions, compromises and forms of resistance involved in nation building and political legitimisation in single party and authoritarian regimes, and the transnational contexts in which they operate.

Please see the document 'Pathways to Impact' for detailed information on how each of these groups will be engaged with.
(1) Teachers and students in Further Education in the UK. The International Baccalaureate Diploma presents the specific opportunity to study the Algerian War as part of its Wars in the 20th Century module, and whilst AS/A2 modules on decolonisation are largely focused on the British empire, the Algerian War provides a point of thematic comparison. Primary and secondary sources in English are currently limited, and this project will not only provide an English-language monograph, it also will generate classroom material and knowledge and skills-based activities specifically aimed at sixth form students.
(2) Teachers and students at all levels of education notably in Algeria and Senegal. Based on my experiences of working with students at universities in both countries, the 'eyewitness account' is either seen as an unworthy substitute for archival material or uncritically accepted as 'the truth'. Using recognisable examples as illustrative material, the monograph and the online 3,500-word chapter in the trilingual oral history manual will delineate how narratives of the past can be read as a prism through which to understand present concerns. The oral history manual in particular seeks to impact on the content and approach of university methodology units, notably those which are part of teacher training programmes.
(2) Policymakers. This project will provide policymakers with understanding of the nature of political legitimacy in Algeria and contemporary perspectives on Algerian youth - areas of vital strategic importance in the context of the 'Arab Spring'. Algeria in general has so far attracted relatively little attention from UK/ Anglophone academia, and the monograph may contribute to evidence-based policy making.
(3) Wider public. Algeria is of increasing economic and political interest in the UK and the project will help increase understanding of a small but growing Algerian community within Britain. The project is of general interest particularly to wider publics in France and Algeria. Just the most recent illustrative example is a highly publicised clash in May 2011 around issues of participation in the war and accusations of betrayal, which pitted Yacef Saadi (head of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in Algiers during the war) against Louisette Ighilahriz (FLN veteran and key figure in reopening the debates in France about the army's use of torture from 2000 onwards, whom I interviewed in 2005). Given the intensely politicised context of the legacy of the Algerian War, no single work can create a closer correlation between academia and public history, but my monograph would generate interest and perhaps reflection. More broadly, the project raises issues about and provides insights into the relationship between the writing of history, democracy and citizenship, areas of significant contemporary resonance.