Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Naomi Pendle
(University of Bath)
Martin Ochaya (Catholic University of South Sudan)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Paper panel
- Stream:
- Crisis, conflict, and humanitarian response
- Location:
- CB3.16, Chancellor's Building
- Sessions:
- Friday 27 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract
Armed conflicts and crises are often synonymous with excess mortality. Therefore, dealing with difficult deaths is unavoidable. In this panel we explore how people navigate difficult deaths and their aftermath, and what socio-political dynamics this entrenches or challenges.
Description
Deaths during conflict and crisis are not only difficult because they are excessive, but also because they do not fit people’s hopes of when, where and how they should die. Combatants and civilians do not only die from direct violence, but because of a crisis-induced lack of food, water and medicine. This panel pays attention to the dead and the aftermath of death to help us understand living people’s experiences of armed conflict and crisis, the politics at play during these crises, but also how people navigate and reimaging the future despite loss. Literature from Sociology, Anthropology and Death Studies has already taught us that responses to death are always shaped by and, in turn, reshape society, culture and politics. In contexts of political violence, bodies (of the living and dead), as well as ghosts, memories and ‘emotive materialities’, become a particularly important political space. War-time bodies can shape global politics, and everyday struggles for power and equity. In this panel we invite papers from a mixture of disciplines that explore how dealing with death and its aftermath during conflict and crisis allow (or hinder) civilians and combatants themselves to navigate the often inequitable, hierarchical, predatory, future-less politics of crisis.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Friday 27 June, 2025, -Paper short abstract
Healthcare workers (HCWs) faced a dual burden during the Covid-19 crisis in Fiji, caring for dying patients in overwhelmed hospitals while balancing personal loss. This paper explores their experiences during and after the pandemic, highlighting the need for support systems for frontline workers.
Paper long abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the vulnerabilities of health systems in low- and middle-income countries, with Fiji reporting the highest pandemic-related mortality rate in the Pacific by late 2021. Healthcare workers (HCWs) were at the frontlines of this crisis, experiencing the double burden of surging patient deaths in under-resourced settings, while struggling to manage personal loss and heightened familial responsibilities. This professional and personal grief was compounded by chronic workforce shortages and challenging working conditions that were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. With the health system under extreme pressure, HCWs assumed new roles beyond clinical care, including preparing food, sterilising hospital wards, reporting breaches in Covid-19 restrictions, and preparing the deceased for burial.
This paper presents preliminary findings from a case study investigating the experiences of HCWs who worked during the pandemic. In early 2025, group talanoa (discussion) sessions were conducted with HCWs across Fiji to explore their changing roles. HCWs described the emotional weight of caring for dying patients who were not permitted to have family present, the disruptions to deeply embedded cultural traditions of mourning and farewelling the dead, and the ongoing emotional scars of the pandemic – which are still raw almost four years after the height of the crisis in Fiji in 2021.
This paper contributes to broader discussions on death and crisis by illustrating how pandemic-induced disruptions to professional and cultural practices reshaped experiences of loss, care, and resilience. Furthermore, the research highlights the need for more robust support systems for frontline workers navigating future crises.
Paper short abstract
Calls for reparations after severe crimes are louder than ever, yet their consequences remain underexplored. We analyse the ICC’s first reparations programme for victims of the 2003 Bogoro massacre, examining how reparations shape grief, justice, resilience, and socio-political inequalities.
Paper long abstract
Calls for reparations in the aftermath of severe crimes—genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—are louder than ever, with courts increasingly ordering reparation programmes for victims. However, research on the effects of such schemes is limited, raising the question: how much do reparations repair? This paper examines the socio-political dynamics of reparations, focusing on measures ordered by the International Criminal Court for victims of the 2003 Bogoro massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The massacre, perpetrated by Germain Katanga and the Forces de Résistance Patriotique d’Ituri, left survivors and communities scarred by excessive violence, displacement, and socio-economic disruption. The ICC’s first reparations programme offers a lens to explore the consequences of reparations and the im/possibility of redress after severe crimes.
Drawing on qualitative interviews and quantitative data from the ICC-commissioned evaluation, the paper explores the interplay between grief, justice, and resilience. It discusses conflicting rationales shaping the reparation order and shows how the reparations process itself became a contested political space, reflecting broader inequities and the fragility of reparations in a conflict context.
While reparations provided symbolic recognition and material assistance, they proved limited in addressing entrenched trauma and inequality. Beneficiaries often viewed reparations as incomplete, given ongoing insecurity, systemic poverty, and lack of trust in institutions. This paper highlights how survivors negotiated these gaps, finding solace in community, faith, and symbolic acknowledgement of their suffering. It interrogates how reparative mechanisms can empower survivors while perpetuating socio-political hierarchies, offering critical insights into justice and resilience.
Paper short abstract
Northern Uganda has been affected by armed conflict for decades, affecting relations with the dead. This article overviews those changes among neighbouring ethnic groups.
Paper long abstract
Northern Uganda is a place in which spiritual forces, including ghosts, are commonly experienced in daily life. That has always been the case, but metaphysical presences have a history, and the ways that living people are affected are diverse and have been subject to change. Among many groups, including the Lugbara, Acholi and Madi, the role of male ancestors was central to the moral ordering of lineages. However, wild spirits are common, especially where there has been armed conflict and social upheavals. These ghosts are beyond the control of male elders and may be mediated by diviners and mediums, commonly referred to as ‘witchdoctors’. Also, some individuals have been inspired by their spirits to lead violent cults, such as the Lord’s Resistance Army. Meanwhile, Christian churches have become powerful actors in the region, and divinely inspired Pentecostalism has become widespread. Christian activists have sought to establish authority over communication with the spirit world, often castigating the activities of others as Satanic. This chapter discusses these matters, drawing my own research in the region since the 1980s