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Vesna Kesic

Research Coordinator

Centre for Women War Victims, Croatia

Research: The Gender Dimension of Memory in Transition, Conflict and Reconciliation: Women Recollecting &Reconstructing Memories

Vesna Kesic is currently working as a Research Coordinator at the Center for Women War Victims - Rosa where she does her field work on the women's memory on resistance to wars and nationalisms in the countries of former Yugoslavia. At the same time she is working on the research project "Political Transformation Processes in the Former Yugoslavia from the Gender Perspective," together with Dr. Doris Goedl from Austria. Research is funded by Der Wissenschaftsfonds zur Foerderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Kesic has also been giving lectures and workshop at the Center for Peace Studies and the Center for Women Studies in Zagreb.

Vesna Kesic has graduated at the University of Zagreb in Psychology (major) and sociology (minor). She received her MA degree at the New School University with the thesis subject The Status of Rape as a War Crime in International Law: Changes Introduced After the Wars in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Her main research interest is in intersection between gender and ethinc identities, its impact on the war violence against women, the effects on women of the transition processes, locally and globally, and in the gender dimension of public memory - the politics of memory.

Vesna Kesic has been an peace and feminist activist since the beginning of disintegration and wars in former Yugoslavia. Before that, she was a professional journalist and editor in various Croatian and other Yugoslav newspapers and magazines. She is a founder and co-founder of several major Croatian NGOs, including The Center for Women War Victims, Women's Human Rights Group B.a.B.e. (Be active, Be emancipated), Women's Network of Croatia, Alternative Informative Network, etc. Among other activities, Vesna Kesic is or was a member of the Board of Directors of Network of East-West Women, 1998 - 2003.
Media Council of the Croatian Helsinki Committee
Governmental Council for the Development of Civil Society, Republic of Croatia
National Working Group on Mechanisms and Planned Actions for CEDAW Implementations in the countries of Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia (within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Croatia)
Appointed (external) member of the Croatian Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights (as the representative of the civil society)

She received following awards, honors and scholarships:

• US /EU 1998 Award for Democratization and Building Civil Society in Croatia, given to Women's Human Rights organization B.a.B.e. where Kesic was a director at that time
• "100 Heroines of the World" for furthering the cause of women's human rights, freedom, health, and equal opportunities, Rochester, New York, 1998
• Deans Fellowship, Graduate Faculty The New School University, New York, 1998
• MacArthur Research and Writing Grant, Program on Global Security and Sustainability for the project "Sexism and War", Chicago, 1998

Selected Publications:

"Establishing Rape as a War Crime" in Transforming A Rape Culture, Eds: Martha Roth at all (forthcoming 2004)

"Women Recollecting Memories/Žene obnavljaju sjecanja." Edited with Vesna Jankovic and Biljana Bijelic. Articles: Foreword; Women are Victims of War, but Women also Know 1.000 Ways to Survive; Goga M's Story; 1993, Goga M's Second Story, 2003. CWWV, Zagreb, 2003.

"Muslim Women, Croatian Women, Serbian Women, Albanian Women…", Balkan as Metaphor. Eds.: Bjelic, Dušan and Savic, Obrad, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England. 2003.

"Gender and Ethnic Identities in Transition," From Gender to Nation. Eds.: Rada Ivekovic and Julie Mertus. Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2002.

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The Gender Dimension of Transition, Conflict and Reconciliation: Women Recollecting & Reconstructing Memories

Research on the Gender Dimension of Transition, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Women Recollecting & Reconstructing Memories starts from the hypothesis that the nature of the preoccupation with the past and its remembrance ("the politics of remembering and forgetting") is determinative for gender equality and democratic development of transitional, particularly postwar societies. If a large part of the past is repressed and detached from the collective/public memory, this can result in restoring the "old balance of power" in which the gender dimension of that power plays a major role. Women and their efforts toward justice, development of civil society, peace and reconciliation have been excluded from the public memory not only in transitional and underdeveloped countries, but also in Western democracies. The extent to which this can influence the political situation and endanger democratic development is shown by some election results in former Communist countries, such as Romania, Serbia, and quite recently Croatia.

As my prospective host during the international research visit, the director of the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, Prof. Elzbieta Matynia stated in her forthcoming program Feminism in Global Perspective: at the beginning of the new century women found themselves shaped by forces that are simultaneously national and global, potentially liberating and in practice often repressive. In an effort to explain why this should be so, we need to analyze how women figure in nationalist projects, and to look at the continuing trends toward globalization, a supra-territorial system of institutions with a variety of gender implications. My research starts from the impact of "gendered memories" on the status of women in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Through the proposed activities of the NCS program, the research should be further "globalized" by studying the impact of the gendered dimension of public memory on women in transitional countries and societies internationally. Transition is, of course, a broad term and relates to politically and culturally different processes. Nevertheless, the processes and consequences of various social, political and economic transitions, particularly those that incited violence, are not equal for men and women. International and interdisciplinary exchange of research will provide comprehensive insight into some basic obstacles that are impeding equality of women globally, despite all the achievements of the international women's human rights movement in the last 50 years ( UDHR, CEDAW, EU Convention on Human Rights and other international and national instruments). Broadened by a wider international dimension, the project should contribute to the better understanding and development of strategies for empowerment of women globally. Strategies to achieve equality between men and women in the globalized world should include the proper range of women's human rights and the principle of gender mainstreaming in national and international institutions and mechanisms.

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