On 9 and 10 February 2016 Prof. Kamari Maxine Clark was a guest of Prof. Olaf Zenker at his research project B04 at the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) “Affective Societies” as well as his Research Area Political and Legal Anthropology of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

Prof. Dr. Olaf Zenker presenting Prof. Dr. Kamari Clarke before her lecture on February 9th, 2016. (Photo: Jonas Bens)

9 February 2016: Public Lecture

On Tuesday evening Kamari Clarke held a public lecture in the Social and Cultural Anthropology Seminar Series entitled “Affective Justice and the Politics of Sentimentality: The International Criminal Court in Africa“ and presented key insights from her book-in-progress. In this book, she examines the controversial debates on the International Criminal Court’s activities in Africa and connects these analyses with approaches from emotion and affect theory. In that respect her project is closely related to the project B04 “Sentiments of Justice and Transitional Justice: Affective Transculturality in Proceedings before the International Criminal Court” in the newly instituted CRC “Affective Societies”. We document her presentation and the subsequent discussion as an audio document:

Lecture by Prof. Kamari Clarke: “Affective Justice and the Politics of Sentimentality: The International Criminal Court in Africa“ (.mp3) Subsequent discussion (.mp3)

Prof. Dr. Kamari Clarke during her lecture „Affective Justice and the Politics of Sentimentality: The International Criminal Court in Africa“ at the Freie Universität Berlin on February 9th, 2016 (Photo: Jonas Bens).

10 February 2016: Workshop

The following day PhD students and PostDocs from the Research Area Political and Legal Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the CRC “Affective Societies” participated in a workshop with Kamari Clarke entitled „The ICC and Africa: Uncovering Affect in the Pursuit of Justice“. Selected draft chapters of Kamari Clarke’s book-in-progress formed the basis for the vivid discussion.

Prof. Kamari Maxine Clarke is an anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Department of Global and International Studies & Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. From 1999 to 2012 Clarke was at Yale University and from 2012 to 2015 at the University of Pennsylvania. Her acclaimed book Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2009) analyzes how human rights conceptions are negotiated in global legal plural contexts, especially regarding international criminal law. Her new book project is concerned with the perceived legitimacy of the International Criminal Court in Africa. In her analysis she includes approaches from emotion and affect theory.