I am a Professor in Political Science at Western Washington University. I teach courses on international and comparative political economy, transitional justice, development, globalization, and international relations.
My research portfolio engages transitional justice, globalization and development questions. I am broadly interested in if and how transitional justice has affected a variety of state building and societal reconciliation goals, such as creating trustworthy public institutions, building a trustworthy state, supporting democratization and good governance. I'm also curious women's engagement and empowerment in global affairs. I currently have three active research tracks. Timing and Transitional Justice: What is too long and too late for transitional justice? Using the case of Latvia, I am currently analyzing attitudes to on-going transitional justice 30 years since independence drawing on an original 2023 survey. Competing Pasts: When a state has multiple, unaddressed atrocities or abuses in its past, how are these pasts reconciled? How does the layering of atrocities from the past affect accountability mechanisms and options? As part of a group of scholars, we are engaged in a four year project examining the politics of competing pasts in the realm of transitional justice in post-communist states. Women and the War in Ukraine: Lavinia Stan and I co-edited a special issue for Women's Studies International Forum exploring women through the lens of combat, care, resistance, and resilience in the on-going war in Ukraine. Contributors engage topics such as female combatants, war crimes and conflict related sexual violence, the gendered composition of refugees and displaced persons, disability and access issues, and women as agents of resistance and change. The war is on-going and women's involvement continues to change and evolve. Mongolia, Semi-Gobi 2019 (above). and Tallinn 2023 (below) |
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