Bulletin

Issue: September 2004

People

TORTURE IN IRAQ

Are we changing long-held values which saw torture as abhorrent? Can democracy be spread by violence? These questions were posed by British sociologist, Professor Keith Tester at a La Trobe University seminar recently.

Professor Tester is researching the implications of violent interrogation techniques, particularly how television determines relationships between viewers and those they see suffering in news and other programs.

Chair of Cultural Sociology at the University of Portsmouth, UK, Professor Tester spent six weeks as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University's Thesis Eleven Centre.

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