RUB Research School

Verena Muckermann

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Associate Doctoral Candidate Verena Muckermann

Faculty for Social Science

(Im-)possibilities of articulating, negotiating, and acknowledging experiences of violence of refugees in the context of massive state violence in
Syria

Considering protracted armed conflicts such as in Syria, this dissertation focuses on a new group of actors in the research field of transitional justice: international refugees. Syrians in exile find themselves in a complex position between the individual challenges of (1) finding their way in the German arrival society, (2) dealing with and processing (past) individual suffering, and (3) the ongoing concern for family members or friends who remain exposed to (future) experiences of violence and oppression.

While there is already extensive literature on approaches to transitional justice (Simić, 2020), such as truth and reconciliation commissions, criminal tribunals and other strategies for coming to terms with the past, even in this established academic field, the contributions from the diaspora and their involvement are generally underrepresented and have so far been little theorized (Koinova & Karabegović, 2019). Moreover, all these approaches require, almost by definition, an end to violence. However, for internationally displaced persons of protracted conflicts, this is often years away, or, as in ongoing dictatorships, completely unforeseeable. This results in the need to consider (new) strategies to articulate and negotiate their experiences and, ideally, processes to recognize their suffering and the violence they have witnessed.

The doctoral project aims to investigate ways and limits of articulating, negotiating and recognizing these past individual but ongoing collective experiences of violence. It takes a cultural-psychological perspective and draws on diverse types of qualitative data, ultimately intending to develop a typology for dealing with past individual, but ongoing collective experiences of violence exemplified by Syrian refugees living in Germany.

Supervisor: PD Dr. Christian Gudehus

About Verena Muckermann

  • PhD Student at the Faculty of Social Science, Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum (Since 01.2023)
  • Master of Science International Crimes Conflict and Criminology (cum laude), VU Amsterdam (09.2020 – 11.2021)
  • Bachelor of Arts “Culture, Individual and Society” and Philosophy, Ruhr-University Bochum (10.2016 – 03.2020)
  • Phenomena and psychosocial consequences of collective (state) violence, as well as processes of their social, legal, and political recognition
  • Qualitative research
  • Cultural Psychology
  • Interdisciplinary studies
  • International Realization Budget: Personal grant to individually plan a long-term internationalization concept and to implement throughout the whole doctorate (11/2023), awarded by the RUB Research School
  • IPU/KKC Graduate School Scholarship: “Trauma and Collective Violence. Articulation, Negotiation, and Recognition” (01/2023-12/2025), awarded by the Hans Kilian und Lotte Köhler-Centre for Social- and Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology (KKC) at Ruhr-University Bochum
  • Gert-Sommer-Prize for Peace Psychology 2022: Prize for academic theses relating to peace psychology of the German Peace Psychology Association
  • Scholarship, PROMOS: Scholarship for academic education and training abroad for a stay to complete the bachelor thesis in South Africa (09/02/2020 to 08/03/2020)
  • Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB)
  • Scholarship, Cusanuswerk: Public fund to "particularly gifted catholic students of all disciplines." financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Continuous scholarship 2016-2022)
  • Since 02.2023: Research Associate at the Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Straub, Ruhr-University Bochum
    • Research Project: “LoKoNet: Network local conflicts and emotions in urban areas: Transdisciplinary conflict research in science-practice cooperation” (04.2022 – 03.2026, BMBF)

  • 05.2022-12.2022: Graduate research assistant at the Chair of Science and Technology for Peace and Security (PEASEC), Prof. Christian Reuter, TU Darmstadt

    • Research Project: TraCe: Regional Research Centre „Transformations of Political Violence“ (04.2022 − 03.2026, BMBF)

  • 05.2022-12.2022: Graduate research assistant at the Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Straub, Ruhr-University Bochum

    • Research Project: “LoKoNet: Network local conflicts and emotions in urban areas: Transdisciplinary conflict research in science-practice cooperation” (04.2022 – 03.2026, BMBF)

  • 10.2021-12.2022: Research assistant at the Institute for Development Research and Development Policy (IEE), Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 01.2021-01.2022: Research assistant at the Center for International Criminal Justice (CICJ) and the Amsterdam Laboratory for Legal Psychology, VU Amsterdam

    • Research Project: “Eyewitness Memory in Cross-Cultural Contexts” 

    • Sub-Project: “Cultural Variables in Eyewitness Evidence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Ruanda”

  • 10.2018-12.2019: Student assistant at the Institute for Development Research and Development Policy (IEE), Ruhr-University Bochum

  • Muckermann, V. (2023). Südafrikas Apartheid im Geschichts- und Gesellschaftsbewusstsein von Jugendlichen. Psychosozial, 46(4), 89–105. doi.org/10.30820/0171-3434-2023-4-89 (Struktur und Dynamik sozialer Konflikte - Beiträge aus Wissenschaft und Praxis).
  • Muckermann, V. (2023). Harm Through Those Supposed To Heal: Exploring Harm as an Analytical Concept in Violence Research Through Cases of Medical Involvement in Torture from Syria. HARM – Journal of Hostility, Aggression, Repression and Malice, 2. doi.org/10.46586/harm.2023.11175
  • Bijleveld, Catrien, Margareta Blazevic, Esther van Voorst, Arno Akkermans, Coralie Niggeler, Michal Fisher, Tessa Huizing et al. (2023). Apology after medical errors: A qualitative vignette study. Amsterdam Law Forum, no. 15 (2): 3–19. doi:10.37974/ALF.475.
  • Märtin, R., Tegeler, J. & Muckermann, V. (2021). Wertebildung im Jugendfußball – Ein Leitfaden für Lehrreferent:innen. TeamUp! – Werte gemeinsam leben. Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Accepted:

  • Muckermann, V. (2024). Sexuelle Gewalt im Kontext des Genozids in Ruanda. In: C. Gudehus (Hrg.): Gewaltpraktiken. Reichweite und Grenzen einer praxeologischen Gewaltforschung. Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag.
  • Drenk, D. H., Muckermann, V., Schoonmade, L., Holá, B., & Vredeveldt, A. (2024). Testifying Across Cultures: Trials and Tribulations. An interdisciplinary scoping review. Amsterdam Law Forum

Published in collaboration: 

  • Bijleveld, C., Blažević, M., Gelvez, D. B., & Buljubasic, M. (2022). Sanctioning Perpetrators of International Crimes: A Vignette Study, International Criminal Law Review, 22(4), 805–826. doi:10.1163/15718123-bja10132.
  • Märtin, R., Tegeler, J. (2020). Wertebildung im Jugendfußball – Ein Handbuch für Trainer. TeamUp! – Werte gemeinsam leben. Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung.

  • „Harm through those supposed to heal. Medical involvement in torture: Cases from Syria“, 2nd HARM Symposium "On the potential of 'harm' as an analytical concept in violence research", 12.05.2023, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, organized by the Hans Kilian und Lotte Köhler-Centre for Social- and Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology

  • „A Stairway toward Justice – An exploration of the Needs of Syrian Survivors of International Crimes Living in Germany“, organized by Forum Friedenspsychologie e.V., 23.01.2023, online

  • “A Stairway Toward Justice: Exploring the Needs of Syrian Survivors of International Crimes” at the University of Notre Dame Student Peace Conference „(Re)Imagining Justice“, 08.04.-09.04.2022, Hybrid (Indiana, USA). Panel: Survivor-Centered Justice and Restoration

  • Since 03/2024: Associated member of the Sylff Mikrokolleg with the overall topic of “Forced Migration”
  • Since 01/2023: Member of the Graduate School: “Trauma and Collective Violence. Articulation, Negotiation, and Recognition”, organized by the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) Berlin and the Hans Kilian und Lotte Köhler-Centre for Social- and Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology (KKC) at Ruhr-University Bochum 
  • Since 02/2021: Research fellow at the Amsterdam Laboratory for Legal Psychology (ALLP), VU Amsterdam, in the research project “Eyewitness memory in cross-cultural contexts”

 

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