Papers by Sarah Federman
Journal of Business Ethics, 2020
With the last Holocaust survivors quietly passing away, one might also expect to see accountabili... more With the last Holocaust survivors quietly passing away, one might also expect to see accountability debates slowing to a trickle. Surprisingly, however, recent years show an upswing in corporate World War II-related atonement debates. Interest in corporate participation in mass atrocity has expanded worldwide; yet what constitutes ethical corporate behavior during and after war remains understudied. This article considers these questions through a study of the French National Railways' (SNCF) roles during the German occupation and its more recent struggle to make amends. This study demonstrates that ethical business leadership requires taking responsibility for past as well as current decisions. Most executives grappling with complex corporate histories work in isolation, in part because the scholarship on business ethics fails to provide guidance. Without such guidance, corporations often respond to accusations about their pasts with carefully crafted statements and legal strategies rather than deep expressions of moral leadership. To assist in remedying this tendency, this paper simultaneously encourages companies to engage in deeper reflection on corporate history, while urging scholars to help guide corporations through critical ethical conversations.
Building an Architecture of Peacebuilding in the United States, 2020
This article considers responses to U.S. slavery through the lens of transitional justice mechani... more This article considers responses to U.S. slavery through the lens of transitional justice mechanisms. Government as well as universities are examined as sites of amends-making. Using this as a background, the article argues for a form of reparations not yet considered; free higher education for three generation of descendants of enslaved persons.
Introduction to Conflict Resolution: Discourses and Dynamics , 2019
This new conflict resolution textbook offers a genealogy of the field demonstrating how various p... more This new conflict resolution textbook offers a genealogy of the field demonstrating how various political challenges faced by the west gave rise to the field's diverse theories, approaches and research methodologies. Using articles that best demonstrate these ideas we present the field as three overlapping eras, or "Epochs." Epoch 1 (1945-1989) Epoch 2 (1990-2001) Epoch 3 (2002-today). This introduction outlines our approach and will help you see how the textbook can useful for a variety of undergrad and grad classes on conflict resolution and other related subjects. To order a review copy please visit: https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/introduction_to_conflict_resolution/3-156-0d2e841a-0cdd-425a-b69c-832e0a26dfd9
Smithsonian Folklife , 2019
Cleaning out my childhood home after my father died, I found the violin my grandfather had given ... more Cleaning out my childhood home after my father died, I found the violin my grandfather had given me 30 years ago. The violin took me on a wondrous journey that Smithsonian Folklife published.
A more publicly accessible version of an article published in Security Dialogue in June 2018. Th... more A more publicly accessible version of an article published in Security Dialogue in June 2018. The blog summarizes the following
Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that makes them “ideal” perpetrators. Because unexamined discursive norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways’ (SNCF) amends-making for its WWII transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends, but because it embodies attributes of an “ideal” perpetrator: It is 1) strong, 2) abstractable, 3) representative of the nature of the crime, and 4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.
Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find ... more Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that makes them " ideal " perpetrators. Because unexamined discursive norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways' (SNCF) amends-making for its WWII transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends, but because it embodies attributes of an " ideal " perpetrator: It is 1) strong, 2) abstractable, 3) representative of the nature of the crime, and 4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.
While stories have circulated for millennia and constitute the very fabric of life in society, na... more While stories have circulated for millennia and constitute the very fabric of life in society, narrative as an optic for understanding and engaging with conflict emerged in the field of conflict resolution only in the past few decades, and has already amassed an array of significant. They encompass several spheres of action. Narrative analysis provides a means to locate individual and communal meaning in their discourse and to pinpoint conflicts in their world views that threaten their identity and agency. Further, it helps explain how marginalized people remain marginalized. Narrative interventions allow for conflict transformation , helping people to renegotiate their social positions and reclaim lost agency stemming from marginalized positions. Narrative evaluation highlights the flexibility of that model to measure change through a detection of discursive shifts over time. This article provides an overview of narrative approaches to conflict, answering: (a) What is narrative and what is its potential as a tool for understanding and responding to conflict? (b) How might we conduct a narrative analysis of a con-flict? (c) From this analysis, how might we then construct narrative interventions and programme evaluations?
Genocide studies considers the accountability various of perpetrators, as well as the needs mass ... more Genocide studies considers the accountability various of perpetrators, as well as the needs mass atrocity creates. The inclusion of market actors, however, remains marginalized. This article considers factors perpetuating this marginalization and its costs, arguing for greater inclusion of market actors in genocide-related discussions. Relegating the importance of these actors makes the field, not their role, tangential. To examine this intersection of business and genocide, this article introduces a contemporary conflict involving the United States and France over the French National Railways (SNCF) and its role in the transport of deportees towards death camps during World War II. The lengthy, vitriolic conflict suggests the need for better discursive spaces to explore the complex role of market actors. Developing the intersection of genocide studies and corporate social responsibility in scholarship and increasing the participation of businesses in post-conflict work can help do this work.
In 1940, France, threatened with total annexation by Nazi Germany, signed an armistice agreement ... more In 1940, France, threatened with total annexation by Nazi Germany, signed an armistice agreement with Germany that placed the French government in Vichy France and divided the country into an occupied and unoccupied zone. The Armistice also requisitioned the rolling stock of the SNCF—French National Railways—which became a significant arm in the German effort, transporting soldiers, goods, and over 75,000 deportees crammed into merchandise wagons toward Nazi extermination camps. Between 3,000-5,000 survived. Of the roughly 400,000 SNCF employees, Nazis murdered a couple of thousand for resistance or alleged in subordination. Railway men who resisted the Germans also often has to resist their employer as well. After the liberation of French at the end of WWII, the company—not simply the brave individuals-received France's Medal of Honor for its alleged role in the ultimate defeat of the Germans. This medal, along with other postwar propaganda in the form of films and books, instilled a singular narrative about the company's heroic wartime role. This narrative continued uninterrupted until the 1980s. Those who returned, along with the relatives of many who did not, increasingly challenge the company's simplified wartime narrative. In the 1990s, lawsuits against the company began in France and continue through 2016 in the United States. In response, the SNCF made efforts to intertwine story of deportation with the company narrative of resistance. One key forum for this attempt was a colloquium held in 2000 at the Assemblée Nationale in Paris. That colloquium is examined here through the lenses of three forms of narrative analysis: structural, functional, and post-structural. Each analytic frame illuminates different challenges to that colloquium's attempts at revising history through altering a mystified institutional narrative. Through the analysis of this case, the author establishes the power of these analytic frameworks when examining problematic discursive spaces that hold in place master narratives and limit moral work.
Genocide studies considers the accountability various of perpetrators, as well as the needs mass ... more Genocide studies considers the accountability various of perpetrators, as well as the needs mass atrocity creates. The inclusion of market actors, however, remains marginalized. This article considers factors perpetuating this marginalization and its costs, arguing for greater inclusion of market actors in genocide-related discussions. Relegating the importance of these actors makes the field, not their role, tangential. To examine this intersection of business and genocide, this article introduces a contemporary conflict involving the United States and France over the French National Railways (SNCF) and its role in the transport of deportees towards death camps during World War II. The lengthy, vitriolic conflict suggests the need for better discursive spaces to explore the complex role of market actors. Developing the intersection of genocide studies and corporate social responsibility in scholarship and increasing the participation of businesses in post-conflict work can help do this work.
Book Reviews by Sarah Federman
In spite of neighboring New Zealand and the international justice system of Human Rights, the ato... more In spite of neighboring New Zealand and the international justice system of Human Rights, the atolls of Tokelau remain remarkably distinct. Three atolls make up Tokelau; Nukunonu, Fakaofo and Atafu. Residents remain loyal to family and the to their atoll of birth. The atolls located about 533km north of Samoa, never exceeded a population of 1,700. The sheer size of this isolated community relative to the predominant global systems of legalism make this an astonishing site for study. Hoëm proves a convincing expert on the Tokelau people, their social and governance structures as well as their language. In spite of a distrust of foreigners, she gained access to both public and private aspects of Tokelau life. When she began her study in the 1980s, the Tokelau were largely self-governing and separate from New Zealand. While the separation still exists, the Tokelau increasingly negotiate with the norms of western democracy. Hoëm's longevity with the subject and her refined linguistic methodology enable her to demonstrate how the Tokelau negotiate shifting relations with outsiders.
Drafts by Sarah Federman
Last Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways & The Journey to Accountability, 2021
n the immediate decades after World War II, the French National Railways (SNCF) was celebrated fo... more n the immediate decades after World War II, the French National Railways (SNCF) was celebrated for its acts of wartime heroism. However, recent debates and litigation have revealed the ways the SNCF worked as an accomplice to the Third Reich and was actively complicit in the deportation of 75,000 Jews and other civilians to death camps. Sarah Federman delves into the interconnected roles—perpetrator, victim, and hero—the company took on during the harrowing years of the Holocaust.
Introduction to Conflict Resolution: Discourses and Dynamics, 2019
We, the authors of this new conflict resolution resource, created an anthology textbook that offe... more We, the authors of this new conflict resolution resource, created an anthology textbook that offers a genealogy of the field. We introduce variety of theories, approaches and research methodologies that emerged to speak to conundrums of their time. We discuss the field as three overlapping eras, or "epochs" as we call them, each comprised of a series of discourses. Epoch 1 (1945-1989) Epoch 2 (1990-2001) Epoch 3 (2002-today).
This introduction will give you a sense of the textbook useful for a variety of undergrad and grad classes on conflict resolution and other related subjects.
Thank you for checking it out! For more information or to order a copy of the full textbook please visit:
https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/introduction_to_conflict_resolution/3-156-0d2e841a-0cdd-425a-b69c-832e0a26dfd9
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Papers by Sarah Federman
Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that makes them “ideal” perpetrators. Because unexamined discursive norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways’ (SNCF) amends-making for its WWII transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends, but because it embodies attributes of an “ideal” perpetrator: It is 1) strong, 2) abstractable, 3) representative of the nature of the crime, and 4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.
Book Reviews by Sarah Federman
Drafts by Sarah Federman
This introduction will give you a sense of the textbook useful for a variety of undergrad and grad classes on conflict resolution and other related subjects.
Thank you for checking it out! For more information or to order a copy of the full textbook please visit:
https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/introduction_to_conflict_resolution/3-156-0d2e841a-0cdd-425a-b69c-832e0a26dfd9
Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that makes them “ideal” perpetrators. Because unexamined discursive norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways’ (SNCF) amends-making for its WWII transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends, but because it embodies attributes of an “ideal” perpetrator: It is 1) strong, 2) abstractable, 3) representative of the nature of the crime, and 4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.
This introduction will give you a sense of the textbook useful for a variety of undergrad and grad classes on conflict resolution and other related subjects.
Thank you for checking it out! For more information or to order a copy of the full textbook please visit:
https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/introduction_to_conflict_resolution/3-156-0d2e841a-0cdd-425a-b69c-832e0a26dfd9