The highway to success
While at Amherst, Keenan completed his studies in an interdisciplinary major, "Politics and Language," and co-edited a bimonthly newspaper, In Other Words. Dissatisfied with "the political conservatism and social complacency" of most of his fellow students, Keenan found the Reagan years to be a tough time at Amherst for a self-described radical democrat. His memories of Amherst were generally quite fond, however, and he credits the college for teaching him "the art of critical thinking"-an important skill for him.
Following graduation, he spent a year in Paris before enrolling in the Ph.D. program at the Humanities Center of The Johns Hopkins University. He would eventually write his dissertation on democracy and the paradoxes of political freedom. Keenan became a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley while finishing his thesis. For four years at Berkeley and three at Harvard University, he taught courses in everything from political rhetoric to constitutional law.
Upon finishing his lectureship at Harvard, Keenan went on to the Asch Center at UPenn in 1999 where he took a training course on the psychology of ethnopolitical conflict, which he described as "a fascinating new course in my seemingly never-ending studies." This course led to his fellowship in Sri Lanka with the Asch Center.
'We didn't start the fire'
Sri Lanka is certainly a fitting place to be studying human rights and ethnic conflict. It is a country ravaged by civil war between the established government, mainly people of the Sinhalese ethnicity, and Eelam, rebels from a group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil. Since 1983 the two have been fighting over a homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and the east, often using guerrilla tactics that have accounted for more than 60,000 deaths.
Much of Keenan's research in Sri Lanka has been centered around a massacre that occurred last fall in which 27 Tamil men being held in a governmental rehabilitation camp were murdered by Sinhalese people from the neighboring towns and villages. "It was a particularly atrocious and scandalous massacre since the 60 or so police officers sent to protect the detainees stood by and did nothing to stop the attack," said Keenan.
Keenan is well aware of the difficulty of doing ethnographic work in another country. "It is very hard-and mostly just very time consuming-to get to know how to make sound judgments about others' beliefs and actions," said Keenan. He is quick to admit that "it makes me wish I'd taken some anthropology courses at Amherst!" Despite this and the fact that he is only in the incipient stages of writing about his experience, he has already learned much about the country he is studying.
"I [see] first-hand just how hard cycles of group violence are to bring to an end once they have become institutionalized," said Keenan. He refers to various factors that perpetuate the war: economic interest, political self-interest and despair. "Some people make lots of money from the war-arms dealers and their politician friends-while others-army soldiers or prostitutes-find less lucrative ways to live off the war."
Keenan's study of Sri Lanka has also led him to oppose the use of the term "terrorism."
"In a lesson that has great relevance for us in the U.S. today I believe that the label 'terrorist' is dangerous," said Keenan. "It is generally used by governments to de-legitimatize and, at times, dehumanize their political opponents. The cumulative effect of the rhetoric of anti-terrorism in Sri Lanka is to let the government and the Sinhalese majority off the hook for the role that their discrimination and nationalism has played in producing violent groups like the Tigers in the first place."
While Keenan acknowledges that the Tigers have committed horrendous acts and are a "dangerous and anti-democratic group" that has killed almost as many Tamils as it has Sinhalese, he stresses the pursuit of peace. "One must also recognize that they have deep social roots and respond to legitimate grievances that the Sinhala people and their government need to address if the war and 'terrorism' are to end," he said.
He returns to Sri Lanka in November to finish his final four months of research. While in the U.S. he has been completing a book entitled "Democracy in Question: Democratic Openness in a Time of Political Closure."
A penny for your thoughts
Keenan has two bits of advice. At the risk of sounding old, he recommends that Amherst students take advantage of the time they have left at the College to take risks in everything from course selection to social interaction to the sharing of ideas. "Society won't be giving you much room to do exploring and risk-taking of this kind once you are out of college," he said. "I'd urge you all to take advantage of the incredible opportunities that a place like Amherst offers you, to think critically and act experimentally."
Second, learn to be compassionate towards political antagonists. In the world's current unstable situation, in which anger and conflict abound, Keenan asks students to promote peace. "Those who are struggling to bring into being a more just, equitable, sustainable and nonviolent society need to do everything they can to resist demonizing their opponents and cultivating their anger towards them."