Kalisa's life, work honored by new book

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August 21, 2019

Click here to learn more about Chantal Kalisa, a former director of WGS. Her death in 2015 came to a shock to many colleagues and friends here at UNL and this new story highlights a new book put together in her honor. 

To memorialize Kalisa's life and work a group of colleagues and friends have published “Art from Trauma: Genocide and Healing Beyond Rwanda,” due from the University of Nebraska Press in August. This book is an anthology of essays that spans the intimate — the lessons learned from Kalisa, written by both colleagues and former students — to the interpretive, with a critical focus on the uses of art, theater and literature as outlets for healing from violence.

Kalisa's academic work in global women’s rights, transnational feminism, women’s literature, African colonial and post-colonial violence against women, and Rwandan genocide produced knowledge while also allowing survivors to tell their own stories.

“[This book] really turned out to be a wonderful collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,” Herndon said.

In addition to the book, which is available for pre-order from the University of Nebraska Press, a memorial scholarship fund has been established at the University of Nebraska Foundation to honor Kalisa.