Minerals and masculinity: a new understanding of sexual violence in war from the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

© 2012 Dr. Sara A. MegerThe widespread and systematic use of rape and other forms of sexual violence during armed conflict was brought to the attention of the international community through the ground-breaking work of feminist scholars in recent decades. This work helped to shift our understanding of sexual violence in war from being an inevitable, if unfortunate, side-effect of armed conflict to recognising it as a violation of women’s rights and a deliberate tool of war-making. However, much of the research done on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war has sought to reveal the underlying causes of sexual violence as stemming from a singular motivation; some focus on the personal reasons that individual soldiers perpetrate sexual violence, while others focus on the way in which sexual violence has been used as a deliberate weapon of terror and genocide. The singularity of focus has led to disagreement within the field about how we can understand the causes and consequences of sexual violence in war, and to a standard set of prescriptions for how to respond to this atrocity. This thesis offers a new understanding of sexual violence in conflict as the outcome of micro- and macro-level processes of the hegemonic global structures of patriarchy and the international political economy. By examining trends in the form and function of sexual violence in recent and ongoing conflicts, this thesis offers a preliminary typology of wartime sexual violence in order to argue that, in different contexts, the perpetration of sexual violence may take different forms and be used in pursuit of different objectives. This thesis argues that, in order to understand the use of sexual violence in conflict and construct effective responses to its perpetration, we must understand the reason for the conflict itself and the objectives of the armed groups involved. This thesis uses the ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a case study by which to demonstrate the relationship between the current hegemonic economic, political and gender orders and the use of sexual violence in economic civil wars. Sexual violence in this conflict has been one of the primary instruments used by all participating armed groups to take control of land, resources, and the people that live in these territories. The conflict is both driven and exacerbated by regional and global economic interests and a pervasive lack of political will to effectively address the widespread and systematic use of sexual violence for economic exploitation. This thesis shows that adequately addressing the root cause of sexual violence in contemporary conflicts thus requires tackling both the underlying gender inequality that gives sexual violence the powerful social effect it has, as well as the reason for the conflict (and use of violence therein), in the first place. Disaggregating our understanding of sexual violence in terms of the instrumental purpose it serves for the perpetrator enables both a better understanding of the causes of sexual violence in war, but also provides a more suitable basis for constructing effective responses that may contribute to a reduction in the perpetration of this wartime atrocity

Food for Thought: Organic vs. Conventional

In the media, organic fruits and vegetables are portrayed as being superior to conventionally-produced foods in several aspects, including flavor. This study’s objective was to determine if college students changed their perceptions regarding the flavor of a conventionally grown food after being falsely told it was organic, with the hypothesis that subjects would prefer samples believed to be organic. Taste panels were conducted over three consecutive days with 102 participants. All the celery, carrots, apples and bananas tested were purchased within the three days of testing. A first set of coded samples was offered, then a second plate, for which subjects were told the samples were organic. Subjects rated samples on a 9-point hedonic scale, where 1=dislike extremely and 9=like extremely. A survey of fruits and vegetable intake and attitudes regarding organic foods was also taken. Subjects rated all samples highly, but no difference in flavor preference was found when comparing conventional to ―organic‖ carrots, celery, and apples. However, a significant (p=0.04) difference was shown to exist between the samples of banana, with the perceived organic banana receiving a higher value for flavor. At this time it is not fully understood why the banana samples exhibited differences in flavor while the others did not. Further research will be needed to fully understand the relationship between perceptions of organic and conventional foods and perceived flavor differences

The Mean Length of Utterance in Narratives of Children with Williams Syndrome and Typically Developing Children

Williams Syndrome is a genetic birth defect affecting 1 in 20,000 live births. Persons with Williams Syndrome share common facial features, heart conditions, and language abilities. Research was conducted to compare the mean length of utterance in morphemes and in words in narratives (stories)- of children with Williams Syndrome and those of typically developing peers. The subjects involved in the research study were six children from each group matched according to linguistic capabilities. Two different transcribers transcribed an audio taped language sample with the differences reconciled by a third evaluator. The data were entered into the computerized Systematic Analysis of Language Transcription known as SALT. According to the Marm-Whitney U test, results indicated no significant differences in the mean length of utterance of morphemes or words