Dr Thia Sagherian Dickey (Dundee): Political Apologies in the aftermath of human rights violations School of Psychology and Neuroscience Friday seminar series

The School of Psychology and Neuroscience seminar series presents a talk by Dr Thia Sagherian Dickey (Dundee) titled “Political Apologies in the aftermath of human rights violations: Divergent perspectives” which will be hosted by Dr Yasemin Acar in Seminar Room 1 and accessible online through MS Teams.

Abstract:
Political apologies are viewed as a moral imperative, used by countries to make amends for past wrongdoing. This seeming norm in the global arena is reflected in the uptake of political apologies given by heads of state for human rights violations in recent years, particularly following the end of the Cold War (Zoodsma & Schaafsma, 2022). Yet to what extent are such speech acts successful in atoning for the past? This talk will look at recent research on the role of political apologies and consider divergent perspectives on its utilisation as a tool for dealing with the past. The research draws on data from the Political Apologies database (Schaafsma & Zoodsma, 2021) and focuses in on a trio of case studies where official apologies were given for past human rights violations. With data from surveys and interviews conducted in these three contexts, the research gives voice to community (lay) perspectives that for years were ignored.