| Description |
'The goal of my project is to produce a book manuscript and, concomitantly, to advance my career through academic and other professional achievements related to the promotion of my research. The subject of my book manuscript is the legitimization of political violence. It analyzes how political violence is viewed by a variety of constituencies (recruits, victims, third parties, and other subdivisions) in the period when it occurs as well as in later years. I do this through a paired comparison of Ireland and Cyprus. The political violence at question took place in the 1910s and ‘20s in Ireland and in the 1950s, ‘60s, and 70s in Cyprus, which is to say, amidst processes of anti-colonial contention and of post-colonial state consolidation. The focus of my analysis, therefore, is the legitimization of these events of political violence during these periods as well as in retrospect, within contemporary collective and historical memory. Drawing from the literature on terrorism, nationalism, ethnic conflict, social movements, colonialism, and collective memory, my approach develops a nuanced conceptualization of legitimization. In general, I argue that the legitimization of political violence is situational, emerging out of many parallel processes that integrate representations of violence and collective commitments (nationalism, morality, historical narratives, strategic logics, etc).'
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