Lacking funding to continue Oxford PhD
Beschermde donatie
My name is Isabel van Rhee. I am currently a first-year PhD student at the University of Oxford in the War History department. My project is on the short- and long-term contexts of conflict-related sexual violence committed in the Dutch East Indies during the Second World War. This includes the continuum of colonial and conflict-related sexual violence before and after the conflict. My research will develop a framework to improve current policy on prevention and relief.
I worked with the Dutch National Refugee Service between 2018 and 2021 while earning my BA and MA from Utrecht University. My role within the organisation was to safeguard clients’ legal rights and care for their emotional well-being during a very stressful and complicated process, interceding on their behalf when necessary. Most of my clients were women and children suffering from the recent trauma of conflict-related sexual violence. This experience made me determined to pursue the connection between historical cases of conflict-related sexual violence and relate them to the present. How can we learn from past mistakes and work never to repeat them? Current aid efforts need to be recalibrated. The focus of relief efforts is mainly on individual survivors. This does not match the community-centric cultures of most of the groups experiencing conflict-related sexual violence.
To address this issue, I switched my focus of study from terrorism and security cultures to examining the history of conflict-related sexual violence and the development of related policy over time and across cultures. I am developing a new framework which looks at conflict-related sexual violence and its long-term consequences as forms of oppression. My case study is the long-term context of the CRSV committed in Indonesia during the Second World War. My research shows that to be more effective, policy and humanitarian aid should be embedded with a community-based focus in mind.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have lost the financial means to continue my studies, even with a part-time job. I am asking if you might consider contributing to the cost of my degree. The £30,790 goal is my tuition fees for the upcoming year (https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/dphil-history).
My research will be able to offer crucial insights to improve current humanitarian policy on conflict-related sexual violence. It is armed with an education that we can help to make a difference.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
Isabel van Rhee
Organisator
Isabel van Rhee
Organisator