Susan Michelle Thomson (born 1968) is a Canadian human rights lawyer and professor of

peace and conflict studies Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violence, violent and nonviolence, nonviolent behaviors as well as the structural violence, structural mechanisms attending Conflict (process), conflicts (including ...

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

. She worked in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

for years in various capacities and is known for her books focusing on the post-

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

history of the country, which have received good reviews. Although she initially supported the ruling

Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi; , FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. The RPF was founded in December 1987 by Rwandan Tutsi in exile in Uganda because of the ethnic violence that had occurred during the Rwandan Hutu Revo ...

(RPF), Thomson later reevaluated her position. Her critical scholarship led her to be declared ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (PNG) is a foreign diplomat that is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplo ...

'' in Rwanda in 2007.

Life

At the age of 23 she began working for the UN in Africa, initially the United Nations Operation in Somalia, later in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and Rwanda, where she witnessed the 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

and escaped to

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In 1995, she began work on a law degree at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

; from 1998 to 2001, she taught law at

National University of Rwanda The National University of Rwanda (NUR; , , UNR) was the largest university in Rwanda. It was located at in the city of Butare and was established in 1963 by the government in cooperation with the Congregation of the Dominicans from the Provin ...

, before returning to Canada for a doctoral program at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

. In 2006, she returned to Rwanda to do fieldwork. Rwandan officials, suspicious of her interviews with a Hutu who had been imprisoned after the genocide, confiscated her passport and forced her to attend "

re-education Re-education or reeducation may refer to: * The process of retraining a person's capacity of movement, for example after a stroke or injury; an element of physiotherapy * The process of teaching persons or groups new political values, attitudes, be ...

" sessions for five weeks, before she managed to escape. The following year she was declared ''

''. In 2009, Thomson received her doctorate from

. She worked at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...

as a postdoctoral fellow beginning in June 2010 and ending in June 2012.

Research

In 2013, Thomson published '' Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda'', which investigates how ordinary Rwandan citizens react to state programs mandating national reconciliation. She demonstrates that the state program does not benefit all Rwandans and is intended to bolster the power of select elites. The book was praised by historian Erin Jessee for "offering rich, ethnographically informed insights"; Jessee stated that Thomson "provides a powerful challenge to the claims of both the Rwandan government and the international community that the RPF’s program of national unity and reconciliation is affecting positive change in Rwanda". In 2018, Thomson published '' Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace''. In the book, she argues that Rwanda's

political culture Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Political culture is what the people, the voters, the electorates believe and do based on their understanding of the ...

has not changed significantly since the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and finds that the country's "elite rule-makers have little understanding of the lived, ground-level realities of ordinary citizens". Political scientist

Aditi Malik Aditi (Sanskrit: अदिति, lit. 'boundless' or 'limitless' or 'innocence') is an important Vedic goddess in Hinduism. She is the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos. She is the goddess of motherhood, consciousne ...

writes that Thomson offers "a perspective that Kagame’s supporters have largely missed... she convincingly shows that Rwanda’s rural majority has been left out of the RPF’s vision of security, peace, development, and democracy". International relations scholar

Herman T. Salton Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Minneso ...

states that Thomson's arguments are convincing and that her conclusion—that "Kagame’s methods resemble those of his predecessors in more ways than one"—is "ominous... particularly for a country whose people have already suffered so much".

Views

Thomson formerly supported the ruling

(RPF) that took power after the genocide, stating "I was not totally blind to

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

shortcomings but felt that their authoritarian practices .g., the executions that she documented in early 1998were necessary to rebuild a peaceful and secure Rwanda". Later, she felt that she had been "duped". In 2014, she wrote a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' op-ed criticizing

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...

s and

assassinations Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

by the RPF. Along with her academic work, Thomson also writes affidavits for Rwandan refugees seeking asylum in other countries.

Works

* *2013. Thomson, Susan, An Ansoms, and Jude Murison, eds
Emotional and Ethical Challenges for Field Research in Africa: The Story Behind the Findings
London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169. * *April 2021. An Ansoms, Anymar Bisoka Nyenyezi, and Susan Thomson, eds

London: James Currey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Susan Living people Colgate University faculty Peace and conflict scholars Historians of Rwanda Human rights lawyers Dalhousie University alumni Alumni of University College London Canadian lawyers 1968 births Alumni of the UCL Faculty of Laws