Cambodia Seminar Series: What’s Love Got to Do with It? Forced Marriages during the Khmer Rouge Regime

Date and Time: May 20, 2022 | 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM ET

Register here.

The crime of the “regulation of marriage,” prosecuted and ultimately convicted in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in November 2018, is a case study in the dynamism of international criminal law as deeply embedded in historical processes. This presentation will provide an overview of the efforts to have forced marriage investigated as a crime on a national scale against both men and women as part of the prosecutorial strategy of the ECCC, and of the historical significance of the conviction of this crime in Case 002-02. Canvassing the many Cambodian and international researchers and organizations involved in raising awareness of the topic, this presentation privileges the voices of survivors in painting a picture of the varieties of marriages forced on couples during the genocidal regime, even while pointing to the gendered power dynamics as the experience impacted men and women differently. The presentation will end by proposing a future research agenda, which speaks to the need for trauma-informed feminist methods that foreground love and care to fill in this still little-understood element of the mass atrocity and to share its effects with a younger generation.

Organizers:
The Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), The New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN), and The Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS).

Speakers:

• Dr. Theresa de Langis is the Director of the Center of Southeast Asian Studies and Professor in Global Affairs and Humanities at the American University of Phnom Penh
• Ms. Sotheary Yim is a psychologist and dialogue facilitator using creative methodologies, with extensive experience working directly with survivors of gender-based violence from the Khmer Rouge period

Moderator:
Dr. Eve Zucker, CKS President and Lecturer in Anthropology, Yale University, USA