Doris Buss from the Department of Law and Legal Studies and Blair Rutherford, Director of the Institute of African Studies and member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology have been awarded a SSHRC Connection Grant to further collaboration between Carleton University and African researchers and human rights groups to promote research into conflict sexual violence in Africa.
In February 2013, Carleton University and Partnership Africa Canada in collaboration with Mouvement des Peuples pour l’Education aux Droits Humains au Rwanda will be hosting a workshop in Bujumbura, Burundi to address some of the gaps known about the patterns, causes and consequences of conflict sexual violence and in the production and dissemination of research on conflict sexual violence. Its overall goal is to build research connections between African and Canadian researchers and civil society organizations (CSOs) on economies of sexual violence and conflict.
It follows a 2010 workshop held at Carleton University that brought together researchers, CSOs, and policy makers working in different capacities on conflict sexual violence in Africa. That workshop highlighted two concerns about the state of research on conflict sexual violence. First, economies – the social relationships involved in pursuing a livelihood — are an important, but little understood, context affecting risks of conflict sexual violence. Second, Africa-based researchers are isolated from other researchers, CSOs, and research dissemination channels, affecting the production and dissemination of needed research on this theme. The Bujumbura workshop, and the fostering of research connections, will stimulate and mobilize research on this theme of importance to both African and Canadian researchers and policy makers.