Doctoral Dissertation Research: Subjectivity and Relationship in Mixed-Ethnicity Families in Post-War Contexts

博士生H. Keziah Conrad（加州大学洛杉矶分校），在Douglas Hollan博士的指导下，将对种族冲突后两极分化背景下的混合种族家庭中的个体进行研究。研究人员将特别关注亲属关系和家庭中的日常互动，作为共同构建态度、价值观和身份的主要场所。在种族冲突之后，混血家庭的人们如何认识自己，维持与亲属的关系，抚养他们的孩子？研究将在12个月内对居住在波斯尼亚-黑塞哥维那萨拉热窝及其周围的家庭进行。在以人为中心的访谈中，研究人员将讨论混合种族家庭的个体成员如何描述自己，他们与家庭中其他人和种族符号的关系，以及他们体验或试图找到归属感的方式。她还将通过记录（通过参与者观察和视频记录）家庭成员之间自发的互动，并通过追踪为亲属群体组织家庭生活的关怀和义务网络，将个人的内省叙述置于背景中。亲属群体可能因为跨越种族界限而显得“不自然”和危险。在研究个人叙述和人际互动时，研究人员将关注年轻一代可能继承、内化、适当或改变他们长辈的创伤记忆和对种族的态度的具体过程，以及与身份和过去暴力有关的更广泛的文化定义方式。这项研究的结果将有助于社会科学地理解集体暴力的影响，特别是在创伤记忆的代际传播和仇恨或同情理解的态度方面。这项工作还与制定冲突后和解和过渡时期司法倡议有关，包括支持跨领域联系的政策，例如可以减少进一步冲突可能性的异族通婚。最后，资助这项研究有助于培养一名社会科学家。

Doctoral student H. Keziah Conrad (University of California, Los Angeles), supervised by Dr. Douglas Hollan, will undertake research on individuals in mixed-ethnicity families in the polarized contexts that follow ethnic conflicts. The researcher will focus in particular on kin relationships and routine interactions in the family as primary sites for the co-construction of attitudes, values, and identities. In the aftermath of ethnic conflict, how do people in mixed-ethnicity families understand themselves, maintain relationships with kin, and bring up their children? Research will take place over 12 months with families living in and around Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Drawing on person-centered interviews, the researcher will address how individual members of mixed-ethnicity families describe themselves, their affiliation with other people in their family and with symbols of ethnicity, and the ways that they experience or try to find a sense of belonging. She also will contextualize individuals' introspective accounts by documenting (through participant observation and video recording) spontaneous interactions between family members and by tracing the networks of care and obligation that organize family life for kinship groups that may appear "unnatural" and treacherous because they cross ethnic lines. When examining both personal narratives and interpersonal interactions, the researcher will attend to specific processes through which younger generations might inherit, internalize, appropriate, or transform their elders' memories of trauma and attitudes toward ethnicity, as well as broader culturally-defined ways of relating to identity and past violence. Findings from this research will contribute to social scientific understanding of the effects of collective violence, particularly in terms of the intergenerational transmission of traumatic memory and attitudes of hatred or empathic understanding. This work is also relevant to the development of post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice initiatives, including policy to support cross-cutting ties, such as mixed marriage, which can reduce the probability of further conflict. Finally, funding this research contributes to the training of a social scientist.