What does it mean to bear witness in a world where violence feels relentless? When speaking out leads to hostility instead of understanding, what remains of the power of testimony? In this conversation between Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Prof Jacqueline Rose they will reflect on the role of witnessing in times of crisis. From the Holocaust to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, history has shown that bearing witness can be both necessary and deeply contested. Today, as atrocities continue in Gaza, Darfur, and the Congo, we are confronted with urgent questions about the purpose of witnessing and whether it can still lead to justice and repair.

Prof Jacqueline Rose

Prof Rose is internationally renowned for her writing on feminism, literature, psychoanalysis, and political conflict, particularly in Israel/Palestine and South Africa. She is Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and a regular contributor to The London Review of Books, New York Review of Books, and The Guardian. Her books, including The Question of Zion and On Violence and On Violence Against Women, examine the intersections of trauma, history, and representation. In 2020, she delivered the annual Freud lecture, `To Die One’s Own Death – Thinking with Freud in a Time of Pandemic’, livestreamed from the London Freud Museum to the Freud Museum in Vienna. She is a co-founder of Independent Jewish Voices in the UK and a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature.

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