New Books in Middle Eastern Studies

← New Books in Middle Eastern Studies2 Sept · 1 h 07 min

Elizabeth Anne Davis, "Artifactual: Forensic and Documentary Knowing" (Duke UP, 2023)

Elizabeth Anne Davis, "Artifactual: Forensic and Documentary Knowing" (Duke UP, 2023)2 Sept1 h 07 min

In Artifactual: Forensic and Documentary Knowing (Duke University Press,

2023), Elizabeth Anne Davis explores how Cypriot researchers,

scientists, activists, and artists process and reckon with civil and

state violence that led to the enduring division of the island, using

forensic and documentary materials to retell and recontextualize

conflicts between and within the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot

communities. Davis follows forensic archaeologists and anthropologists

who attempt to locate, identify, and return to relatives the remains of

Cypriots killed in those conflicts. She turns to filmmakers who use

archival photographs and footage to come to terms with political

violence and its legacies. In both forensic science and documentary

filmmaking, the dynamics of secrecy and revelation shape how material