Event Details

Anthropologist Courtney Work discusses new research: "At the Nexus of Genocide and Ecocide: 'Transitional Justice' in Contemporary Cambodia"

Lunch provided.

Sponsored by Religious Studies, Political Science, Environmental Studies, and International Studies

Anthropologist Courtney Work will visit campus to talk about transitional justice in Cambodia, via the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), also called the “Khmer Rouge Tribunals.” Much has been promised and expected on the basis of these trials, one case of which ended November 2018 in convictions for Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity, for two senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge.  Dr. Courtney Work is an anthropologist who has spent years working at the nexus of environmental studies, including community-based patrols against illegal logging and forest destruction. Her presentation is on the notion of “transitional justice” as it has been deployed in Cambodia, and the relevance or irrelevance of the implementations of transitional justice to everyday Cambodians, and to the crashing environmental damage that is being done: the damming of the Mekong River upstream has resulted this year, for instance, in “empty” rivers during the agricultural season in Cambodia, pits to mine sand for construction – largely in Singapore and Malaysia, thus far – are causing major disruption across the country, and deforestation continues apace.