Susanne C. Knittel is associate professor of Comparative Literature at Utrecht University. She is the coordinator of the Utrecht Forum for Memory Studies and the co-director of the Network for Environmental Humanities. Her research revolves around the figure of the perpetrator in cultural memory and memory politics, and the cultural representation of the genocide-ecocide nexus.
Susanne is the principal investigator of the EcoViolence project. Her research within the project revolves around the representation of ecologies of violence in theater and in prose fiction. In particular, she explores how realist genres such as documentary theater, autobiography, or the historical novel are reimagined to represent the multidirectional links between eco-violence, genocide, and colonialism and map different forms of involvement and implication in these histories. For example, in her sub-project on contemporary eco-dramaturgy, she examines the recent resurgence of tribunal theater in the context of the ecocide discussion and how theater makers blur the boundaries between the courtroom and the theatre to create a space where alternative forms of justice and testimony can be played out.
Susanne C. Knittel, ‘Ecologies of violence: Cultural memory (studies) and the genocide-ecocide nexus’, Memory Studies (2023), Volume 16, Issue 6, pp. 1563-1578. Ecocide and large-scale ecological degradation raise critical questions regarding guilt, justice, and responsibility. The complexity and scale of ecological violence present a singular challenge for memory studies, especially when it comes to understanding…
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