ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the intersections between the study of memory and trauma with a particular focus on gendered insecurity. From the memorialization of battlefields, to cenotaphs and formal war memorials, the international political landscape is scattered with sites seeking to commemorate trauma and insecurity (Mayo 1988). These sites, which may seek to commemorate armed conflict, atrocities against civilians, or other violent events, draw directly on gendered histories to articulate a coherent narrative about what has occurred. Although a growing body of work has been produced on memory and trauma within scholarship on International Relations (IR) and security, a far smaller section of work has explicitly explored this in relation to gender (Pető and Altınay 2016). Of the existing work which has considered memorization and trauma from a gendered perspective, the focus has primarily been on commemoration, or lack of commemoration, of women’s gendered insecurity, rather than integrating the concept of gender more broadly to the ways in which trauma and memory are conceptualized in the international sphere.
