Patricia Lawrence
Lecturer, Peace and Conflict Studies
Department of Anthropology
University of Colorado
E/
patricia.lawrence@colorado.edu
Batticaloa's Shadows: Violence and Recovery
Saturday, May 13, 2006 | 16:30 - 18:30 EST
* Presenter has withdrawn paper.
This paper brings an ethnographic perspective to bear on the
intersection of violence and social recovery in Batticaloa District.
Fine-grained, local level anthropological research in villages devastated by the
Tsunami and the unrelenting shadows of war forms the basis of case studies and
analysis in this presentation. The perspectives offered in the paper are drawn
from recent and on-going research.
Dr. Lawrence's ethnographic research has continued in eastern Sri Lanka from 1991 to present. Her research has focused on how people creatively draw from cultural resources to survive, heal war's injury, and to redeem life. A MacArthur, Fulbright, and Rockefeller scholar, she teaches anthropology and peace and conflict studies at the University of Colorado, and works as a consultant for grass roots civil society endeavors in eastern Sri Lanka. She is the author of The Ocean of Stories (2003), and a number of scholarly articles. She served as the consultant for documentary films about everyday people caught in the 1990's violence in Batticaloa.