James Arie Figgins, Research Program

This essay describes James Figgins's research program.

Research into genocide and post-genocide societies intersects with multiple academic disciplines and demands a multifaceted approach to provide leverage into such contentious and subject matter. This research program explores the imaginaries shared between victims and perpetrators in post-genocide Rwanda to gain insight into the singular behaviors of genocidaires and their relations. It asks questions like: how do perpetrarors seek forgiveness? How do victims and relatives of victims cope with the reintegration of their attackers back into their community? How does the state balance the considerations of a community who committed genocide against the interests of their victims? This research expands on the traditions post-conflict cases and relies heavily on memory studies to inform its trajectory. As the second-wave feminists proclaimed that "the personal is political" so too is the political personal, and nowhere so much as in a post-genocide, aspirationally healing society.