Violent Exceptions

Violent Exceptions turns to the humanitarian figure of the child-in-peril in twenty-first-century political discourse to better understand how this figure is appropriated by political constituencies for purposes rarely to do with the needs of children at risk. Wendy S. Hesford shows how the figure of the child-in-peril is predicated on racial division, which, she argues, is central to both conservative and liberal logics, especially at times of crisis when politicians leverage humanitarian storytelling as a political weapon. Through iconic images and stories of child migrants, child refugees, undocumented children, child soldiers, and children who are victims of war, terrorism, and state violence, Violent Exceptions illustrates how humanitarian rhetoric turns public attention away from systemic violations against children’s human rights and reframes this violence as exceptional—erasing more gradual forms of violence and minimizing human rights potential to counteract these violations and the precarious conditions from which they arise

Human Rights: Confronting Images and Testimonies

Streaming video requires RealPlayer to view.The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.This conference begins with the question "What is Evidence?" Art offers a lens through which we come to recognize the politics of power and abuse. Human Rights: Confronting Images and Testimonies brings together artists, activists, and scholars who will discuss their work in the context of human rights as it transforms the raw material of individual and collective suffering into legible and convincing data, confrontational imagery, and testimony. This conference will begin on Thursday, March 4, at 4 p.m. with a presentation by artist activist Coco Fusco. It will conclude with the collaborative project Combatant Status Review Tribunals, pp. 002954-0034064: A Public Reading. The conference will be held both days at the Wexner Center for the Arts.The Ohio State University. College of Arts and HumanitiesThe Ohio State University. Institute for Collaborative Research and Public HumanitiesThe Ohio State University. Institute for Women, Gender, and Public PolicyThe Ohio State University. Center for Folklore StudiesThe Ohio State University. Department of Women's StudiesThe Ohio State University. Women in DevelopmentThe Ohio State University. Disability StudiesThe Ohio State University. Melton Center for Jewish StudiesThe Ohio State University. Sexuality StudiesThe Ohio State University. Folklore Students AssociationOhio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent Web page, streaming video, event photo

Mershon Faculty 2018-19 Wendy Hesford

Home Department: Englis

Violent Exceptions: Children's Human Rights and Humanitarian Rhetorics

This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of The Ohio State University Libraries. Learn more at the TOME website, which can be found at the following web address: https://openmonographs.org.Introduction: Children's rights and humanitarian rationalities -- "No tears here": humanitarian recognition, liminality, and the child refugee -- Trafficking global girlhoods, terrorism, and humanitarian celebrity -- Humanitarian futures: disability exceptionalism and African child soldier narratives -- Humanitarian negations: Black childhoods and US carceral systems -- Queer optics: humanitarian thresholds and transgender children's rights -- Coda: "Walls as we see them"