Our international seminar aims to analyze the role of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones and to discuss how images and ideas about perpetrators of sexual violence come into existence. The following topics will be addressed: identification of the perpetrators, characterization of the perpetrators, reactions towards the perpetrators, mechanisms of recognition and judgment. All the participants work currently on the topic of sexual violence in conflict zones and have several publications in the area. The seminar is intended to promote discussion among them and to disseminate their work among post-graduate students and researchers.

This seminar is part of the activities of the international research group “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict” (SVAC). Our group brings together historians, legal scholars, sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, experts in cultural studies, and human rights activists from different countries. Our aim is to compare empirical data and theoretical studies from different theaters of war and conflict. In a series of seminars, workshops and conferences, we focus on developing a framework for comparison, common research questions and multifaceted methodological approaches. By initiating discussions and identifying topics such as the historical and geopolitical context of sexual violence in armed conflicts, the prevalence and forms of such acts, performative factors, narratives, the question of social reception, legal interpretation, etc, SVAC aims at promoting the systematic development of research questions and methods.