Histories of Violence

  • The abundance of real suffering tolerates no forgetting. This suffering demands the continued existence of art even as it prohibits it. It is now virtually in art alone that suffering can still find its own voice

    The abundance of real suffering tolerates no forgetting. This suffering demands the continued existence of art even as it prohibits it. It is now virtually in art alone that suffering can still find its own voice

    Theodor Adorno

  • 'The unspoken terror permeating our collective memory of the Holocaust is the gnawing suspicion that the Holocaust could be more than an aberration, more than a deviation from an otherwise straight path of progress'

    ‘The unspoken terror permeating our collective memory of the Holocaust is the gnawing suspicion that the Holocaust could be more than an aberration, more than a deviation from an otherwise straight path of progress’

    Zygmunt Bauman

  • The twentieth century, industrial scale killing has been practiced in the belief that the survivors will live in a better world than has ever existed

    The twentieth century, industrial scale killing has been practiced in the belief that the survivors will live in a better world than has ever existed

    John Gray

  • If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened - that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death

    If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened – that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death

    George Orwell

  • Wars are no longer waged in the name of a sovereign who must be defended they are waged on behalf of the existence of everyone; entire populations are mobilised for the purpose of wholesale slaughter

    Wars are no longer waged in the name of a sovereign who must be defended they are waged on behalf of the existence of everyone; entire populations are mobilised for the purpose of wholesale slaughter

    Michel Foucault

  • Make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason

    Make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism – it is recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason

    Barack Obama

  • Together with the process by which the exception everywhere becomes the rule, the realm of bare life gradually begins to coincide with the political realm, and exclusion and inclusion, right and fact, enter into a zone of irreducible indistinction

    Together with the process by which the exception everywhere becomes the rule, the realm of bare life gradually begins to coincide with the political realm, and exclusion and inclusion, right and fact, enter into a zone of irreducible indistinction

    Giorgio Agamben

  • The worst, the cruellest, the most human violence has been unleashed against living beings, beasts or humans, and humans in particular who precisely were not accorded the dignity of being fellows

    The worst, the cruellest, the most human violence has been unleashed against living beings, beasts or humans, and humans in particular who precisely were not accorded the dignity of being fellows

    Jacques Derrida

  • When the state issues directives on how war is to be reported, indeed on whether war is to be reported at all, it seems to be trying to regulate the understanding of violence, or the appearance of violence within a public sphere.

    When the state issues directives on how war is to be reported, indeed on whether war is to be reported at all, it seems to be trying to regulate the understanding of violence, or the appearance of violence within a public sphere.

    Judith Butler

  • Power and violence are not the same. Violence is the weapon of choice for the impotent. Those who don't have much power often attempt to control or influence others by using violence

    Power and violence are not the same. Violence is the weapon of choice for the impotent. Those who don’t have much power often attempt to control or influence others by using violence

    Hannah Arendt

  • Because the Lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts; that even in this place one can survive, and therefore one must want to survive, to tell the story, to bear witness…

    Because the Lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts; that even in this place one can survive, and therefore one must want to survive, to tell the story, to bear witness…

    Primo Levi

  • The task of a critique of violence can be summarized as that of expounding its relation to law and justice. For a cause, however effective, becomes violent, in the precise sense of the word, only when it enters into moral relations

    The task of a critique of violence can be summarized as that of expounding its relation to law and justice. For a cause, however effective, becomes violent, in the precise sense of the word, only when it enters into moral relations

    Walter Benjamin


Welcome to Histories of Violence. A multi-media forum dedicated to exploring the theoretical, empirical and aesthetic dimensions to violence. Founded and Directed by Dr. Brad Evans, this trans-disciplinary project provides an open access platform for the specific purposes of academic and public engagement; knowledge transfer; political discussion; philosophical reflection; along with exhibiting works which directly engage the perennial problem afflicting human life. Amongst the sites key features include:

  • Dedicated filmed symposia by international scholars
  • Introductory lectures to key canonical thinkers
  • Comprehensive author-specific resource hub
  • Selected interviews
  • Short films & Creative Reflections
  • Online exhibitions/filmed readings by renowned artists, writers, and creative visionaries
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