Identity and Violence

Understanding violence requires us to explore the relationship between identity and the ways people see themselves as appropriate agents, and others as appropriate subjects of violence. A wide range of violent phenomena, from violence against women, so-called “gay-bashing” and other hate crimes to terrorism, militarism and war, stem from and depend upon norms of appropriate behavior for given identities. This theme will involve a symposium on the ways identities shape different kinds of violence and how these violent phenomena may be constrained or prevented through a deeper understanding of identity.