Anna Di Lellio and Garentina Kraja
The Strongest Link
Anna Di Lellio and Garentina Kraja joined Linda Gusia in discussion about their book The Strongest Link, an oral history that brings together the testimonies of women who survived survived weaponized rape during the Kosovo War. By placing these stories at its centre, the book challenges the decades of silence surrounding wartime sexual violence and creates space for women's voices as custodians of memory. Through the stories of twenty women, the book documents not only the experience of sexual violence and its enduring consequences, but also the ways in which these women have continued to rebuild their lives, care for their families, and forge forms of resilience in the face of trauma, stigma, and patriarchal structures.
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Programme
In Conversation
Project Lead
Participants
Linda Gusia
Themes
“We sought access to survivors because we wanted to give them a speaking position, insofar as their voices have been sidelined or repressed, especially in front of an international audience. In exchange, they showed us that they are the strongest link.”
Di Lellio and Kraja contextualized these narratives within a history of state repression, ethnic cleansing, and lack of justice. They have also wolves these women’s stories together, and placed them within a chronological storyline so that they can be read as one might listen to a choir; each woman’s unique voice and story can be heard, but their power lies in a shared song, a story of courage and strength.
Anna Di Lellio is Adjunct Professor at the Master of Arts in International Relations (MAIR) at New York University. An expert on Kosovo, she co-founded the Kosovo Oral History Initiative. She has taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, The New School, and the American University in Kosovo.
Garentina Kraja is a researcher, journalist, and former policy adviser. Her career comprises over two decades of reporting, researching, and advising policy in Kosovo and other countries in the Western Balkans, ranging from the coverage of the 1998-99 war in her native Kosovo to its transition to an independent state.
Linda Gusia is a feminist scholar and sociologist. She is head of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Prishtina. Her research has focused on topics of gender, feminism, activism, space, memory, and resistance.
The event was co-organised with the University of Prishtina.