The effects of being heard: from victim to activist

Warning: This talk is about how a woman, victim of incest by her father as a little girl and later in life of rape, conjugal violence and other forms of sexual violence went from being silenced and unheard to become an emerging public activist whose voice in support of victims of sexual violence resounds across different circles and initiatives.

For this presentation, Julie Ann and I focused on re-constructing key moments of her healing journey rather than on the abuse she endured. That being said, naming and acknowledging what happened to a victim is crucial to the restorative justice process and therefore we will be referring to some of the violence experienced by Julie Ann. Following the presentation, Julie Ann will be at my side and will be happy to answer your questions. We advise you to practice self-care as you listen to this talk and invite you to notice where the information that you are hearing sits in your body. Specifically, we will focus on how a social worker, a restorative justice facilitator or a performance creator can deploy listening and oral history interviewing techniques to support such a healing journey.

How can you participate? Register for the Zoom webinar.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

Speakers

Julie Ann Carpini is a speaker and communicator whose desire to speak for sexual violence victims and survivors grew from her healing journey from relating deep traumatic wounds. As an activist, in partnership with Université de Montréal, she is one of five committee members at "Experte en Vécu" for the research project entitled "Cellule Trajectoires", which addresses major issues with domestic violence. Julie Ann is currently in a specialized training at Centre de Services de Justice Réparatrice in Montréal to accompany victims and offenders in a restorative justice process. She is also collaborating with Dr. Luis Carlos Sotelo Castro in a research-creation project that intersects performance and restorative justice in the Acts of Listening Lab at Concordia University. 

Luis C. Sotelo Castro is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. In 2018 he founded at Concordia the Acts of Listening Lab, a hub for research-creation on the transformative power of listening to painful narratives, with particular reference to testimonies by exiles from sites of conflict. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory.