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Aurality of images in graphic ethnographies: Sexual violence during wars and memories of the feelings of fear (2022)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2022). Aurality of images in graphic ethnographies: Sexual violence during wars and memories of the feelings of fear. Sociological Review, 70(4), 686-699. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221108843

This article examines the role of graphic ethnography in mapping the objects and feelings of fear through the silence of images, through the aurality of this silence. By aurality, I refer to the sounds and feelings felt by the reader when seeing thes... Read More about Aurality of images in graphic ethnographies: Sexual violence during wars and memories of the feelings of fear.

Irreconcilable times (2022)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2022). Irreconcilable times. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 28(S1), 153-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13760

In Denktagebuch (Thought diary, 1950-73), Hannah Arendt wrote that acts which cannot be forgiven are beyond punishment and hence cannot be reconciled to. In this essay, I draw from Arendt to further theorize and extend the concept of irreconciliation... Read More about Irreconcilable times.

Introduction: On irreconciliation (2022)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2022). Introduction: On irreconciliation. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 28(S1), 11-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13751

Most post-conflict reconciliatory exercises make it incumbent upon survivors to forgive, and seek closure as a demonstration of ‘moving on’. Various anthropologists have criticized reconciliation and related forms of ‘alternative justice’ extensively... Read More about Introduction: On irreconciliation.

‘Medicine in Name Only’: Mistrust and COVID-19 Among the Crowded Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh (2022)
Journal Article
Islam, S. N. E., Mookherjee, N., & Khan, N. (2022). ‘Medicine in Name Only’: Mistrust and COVID-19 Among the Crowded Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 9(2), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.9.2.5424

This article is an anthropological examination of the health-seeking behaviours of Rohingya refugees living in crowded camps in Bangladesh, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. One international organisation providing medical care in the Kutupalo... Read More about ‘Medicine in Name Only’: Mistrust and COVID-19 Among the Crowded Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh.

Historicising the Birangona: Interrogating the Politics of Commemorating the Wartime Rape of 1971 in the context of the 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh (2022)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2022). Historicising the Birangona: Interrogating the Politics of Commemorating the Wartime Rape of 1971 in the context of the 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh. Strategic Analysis, 45(6), 588-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2021.2009663

Two decades ago, ‘1971’ was deemed to not have a market within Indian publishing houses and media outlets. Yet, one is struck by the contemporary Indian focus on the iconic figure of the Birangona – brave women, a title given by the State of Banglade... Read More about Historicising the Birangona: Interrogating the Politics of Commemorating the Wartime Rape of 1971 in the context of the 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh.

Democracy in Scare Quotes: The Granularity of Control in the Hybrid State of Bangladesh (2021)
Book Chapter
Lacy, M., & Mookherjee, N. (2022). Democracy in Scare Quotes: The Granularity of Control in the Hybrid State of Bangladesh. In A. Ruud, & M. Hasan (Eds.), Masks of authoritarianism: Hegemony, power and public life in Bangladesh (237-246). (1). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4314-9_16

Hybrid cars. Hybrid workplaces. Hybrid war. Hybrid states. We are witnessing today the mixing of elements to create new forms of life, business, work, war and politics. In times of technological, geopolitical, social and political change, the ability... Read More about Democracy in Scare Quotes: The Granularity of Control in the Hybrid State of Bangladesh.

Graphic Ethnography and Generative Resilience of Sexual Violence in Conflict of the Birangonas (War-heroines) in Bangladesh (2021)
Book Chapter
Mookherjee, N. (2021). Graphic Ethnography and Generative Resilience of Sexual Violence in Conflict of the Birangonas (War-heroines) in Bangladesh. In J. Clark, & M. Ungar (Eds.), Resilience, Adaptive Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice: How Societies Recover after Collective Violence. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108919500.007

The use of rape was common during the 1971 war in Bangladesh. Six days after the war ended, the new government publicly declared that any woman raped in the war was a birangona or ‘war heroine’. There exists a public memory of wartime rape through va... Read More about Graphic Ethnography and Generative Resilience of Sexual Violence in Conflict of the Birangonas (War-heroines) in Bangladesh.

‘Firing cannons to kill mosquitoes' : Controlling virtual ‘streets’ and the ‘image of the state’ in Bangladesh (2020)
Journal Article
Lacy, M., & Mookherjee, N. (2020). ‘Firing cannons to kill mosquitoes' : Controlling virtual ‘streets’ and the ‘image of the state’ in Bangladesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 54(2), 280-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720917923

This article examines the historical, social and political legacies of the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT Act) (2006–2018, amended in 2013) and the Digital Security Act (DSA) (2018–) in the Bangladeshi state’s attempt to control th... Read More about ‘Firing cannons to kill mosquitoes' : Controlling virtual ‘streets’ and the ‘image of the state’ in Bangladesh.

Birangona: towards ethical testimonies of sexual violence during conflict (2019)
Book
Mookherjee, N., & Keya, N. (2019). Birangona: towards ethical testimonies of sexual violence during conflict. Durham University. https://doi.org/10.15128/r1sb3978287

Labonno/Labony needs to do a school project on family memories of 1971, the Bangladesh War. When coming to ask her grandmother, she wakes the latter from one of her frequent nightmares. What follows is her grandmother’s (Nanu/Rehana) narration of the... Read More about Birangona: towards ethical testimonies of sexual violence during conflict.

1971: Pakistan's Past and Knowing What Not to Narrate (2019)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2019). 1971: Pakistan's Past and Knowing What Not to Narrate. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 39(1), 212-222. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201x-7493909

The formation of Bangladesh in 1971 coincided with the death of three million people and rape of two hundred thousand women (according to official and contested figures) by the West Pakistani army and local East Pakistani collaborators. Yet 1971 rare... Read More about 1971: Pakistan's Past and Knowing What Not to Narrate.

‘Memory’ (2018)
Book Chapter
Mookherjee, N. (2018). ‘Memory’. In R. Bleiker (Ed.), Visual global politics. Routledge

Desh: the aesthetics of staging the nation (2016)
Book Chapter
Mookherjee, N. (2016). Desh: the aesthetics of staging the nation. In K. Ashraf (Ed.), Locations : an anthropology of architecture and urbanism (12-21). ORO Editions and Bengal Foundation

History and the Birangona: The ethics of representing narratives of sexual violence of the 1971 Bangladesh war (2015)
Other
Mookherjee, N. (2015). History and the Birangona: The ethics of representing narratives of sexual violence of the 1971 Bangladesh war

In December 1971, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war with West Pakistan and their local Bengali collaborators. Faced with a huge population of rape survivors, the new Bangladeshi government – six days aft... Read More about History and the Birangona: The ethics of representing narratives of sexual violence of the 1971 Bangladesh war.

The raped woman as a horrific sublime and the Bangladesh war of 1971 (2015)
Journal Article
Mookherjee, N. (2015). The raped woman as a horrific sublime and the Bangladesh war of 1971. Journal of Material Culture, 20(4), 379-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183515603742

This article examines the relationship between aesthetics and politics when invoking the imagery of war-time rape. It explores the prevalent way in which the raped woman of the Bangladesh war of 1971 is imagined in contemporary Bangladesh through the... Read More about The raped woman as a horrific sublime and the Bangladesh war of 1971.