In recent decades, sexual violence has become an increasingly important topic for historians and social scientists researching gender, the military and war. Current studies emphasise that sexual violence in military and war contexts encompasses a wide range of behaviours. Next to rape, these include sexual mutilation, sexualised torture, sexual humiliation, forced prostitution as well as coerced pregnancies and abortions. Although victims of sexual violence are primarily women, commonly portrayed as civilians, they can also be men of any age and may belong to the military themselves. Sexual violence is not only practised by men in the military, but by women too.

Research also indicates that sexual violence can fulfill various context-specific functions. Rape has not only been a common practice of victorious soldiers and officers, but also was used by army leaders as a weapon of war or a war strategy. The motives and functions depend on the specific historical context. Also the frequency with which civilians are raped by military personnel has varied considerably over time and in different regions during armed conflicts, as has the way in which it is perceived and remembered. This is why it is crucial to understand the historically changing conditions of violent practices, and to carefully distinguish between public discourse on rape, its representation in art and culture, the use of rape in war propaganda, its regulation in military and state laws, and its place in everyday war practices.

The third international conference will examine the issue of sexual violence perpetrated by military and paramilitary forces, taking a comparative approach across regions and time periods. Our aim is to explore conflicts in Europe, North America and beyond from the Early Modern period to the present day.

• PD Dr Anne-Laure Briatte (Sorbonne University)
• Prof. Dr Isabelle Deflers (University of the Bundeswehr Munich)
• Prof. Dr Karen Hagemann (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• Dr Gerhard Kümmel (ZMSBw, Potsdam)

En cooperation avec :

• Prof. Dr. Isabel Heinemann (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich-Berlin)
• Prof. Dr Maren Lorenz (Ruhr University Bochum)
• Prof. Dr Elissa Mailänder (Sciences Po Paris)
• Prof. Dr Maren Röger (Leibniz Institute for History and Culture of Modern Europe)

Organisational assistant at the ZMSBw: Captain Nils Birk MA, email: NilsBirk@bundeswehr.org

Veuillez consulter le site de la conférence ici : Third International MKGD-ZMSBw Conference

Source image : Boris Kudoyarov: Leningrad residents leave their bombed-out houses, photography, December 1942