Wronged! Reversals of victimhood as acts of power
When:
—
Venue:
Online
'Wronged! Reversals of victimhood as acts of power'. Guest lecture by Prof. Lilie Chouliaraki for Birkbeck Criminology Seminar Series.
Abstract: Why is being a victim such a popular identity today? Who exactly claims to be a victim? Who benefits and who loses from the struggles over victimhood in western public cultures? Drawing on the Roe vs Wade overturning and the U.S. debate on reproductive rights, this talk shows how claiming victimhood is about claiming power. It draws attention to the strategies and tropes through which claims to pain are systematically appropriated and weaponized to serve the interests of powerful actors and groups. In so doing, the talk highlights the ways in which social struggles over victimhood in public discourse and social media are struggles about who owns the languages of pain, who deserves to be protected as a victim and who should be punished as perpetrator. Particularly in the context of far Right populism, it argues, we need to be skeptical of and critically interrogate the claims to victimhood that dominate public discourse as they often work to perpetuate old exclusions and introduce new injustices in society.
Contact name:
Sappho Xenakis