Research
The Dealing with the Past Program contributes to the research-policy nexus at swisspeace through its research projects, research events, conferences, publications and teaching. The Dealing with the Past research activities are connected to a network of partners, scholars and practitioners in Switzerland and elsewhere and focus on: analysing dealing with the past processes, interrogating assumptions and norms which underpin dealing with the past processes, and identifying innovative and informative avenues for future research. Dealing with the Past Research Fellow Briony Jones specialises in reconciliation, citizenship and the politics of transitional justice. Sandra Rubli is a PhD student specialising in the links between transitional justice processes and state formation in Burundi.
Research Projects
The Dealing with the Past Program has received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation for a three year (2012-2015) project on "Resisting Transitional Justice? Alternative Visions of Peace and Justice". Principal Applicant: Laurent Goetschel, Co-Investigator: Briony Jones, and Researcher: Sandra Rubli. A summary of the project can be found here.
Briony Jones is an advisor for a SCOPES Institutional Partnership between the University of Sarajevo and the University of Zurich on Memory, History and State-Building in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Critically Assessing and Re-Thinking the Teaching of Memory Politics in Bosnian University Curricula. Full details of the project can be found here.
Conferences and Workshops
2012
Documenting Human Rights Violations - Conference and Launch of the Archives and Dealing with the Past Project, 25th April, Bern
Organisers: Human Security Division of the FDFA / the Swiss Federal Archives / swisspeace
Program
Spaces of Transitional Justice: Citizenship and Civil Society 2012 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 24th-28th February, New York
Organisers: Dr. Alex Jeffrey, University of Newcastle / Dr. Briony Jones, swisspeace
Details of the panel and papers
2011
Researching Reconciliation and Post-Conflict Justice: Reflecting on Epistemology, Positionality and Claims to Knowledge, 14th-15th December 2011, Brussels
Organisers: Briony Jones, swisspeace / Jana Schildt, GRAPAX and Université de Louvain. More
The Role of Experts in Dealing with the Past, 18th-19th November 2011, Centre for Global Studies, University of Bern
Organisers: Regula Ludi, Universities of Bern and Zurich / Stephan Scheuzger, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
Speaker: Briony Jones, swisspeace
Program
From Peace to Shared Political Identities: Exploring Pathways in Contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina Book Launch of the Transitions special double issue, 14th November 2011, University of Oxford
Chair: Dr. Alex Jeffrey
Key Note Speaker: Prof. Richard Caplan.
Book Author: Briony Jones, swisspeace More
Workshop on Understanding Violence in Latin America, 6th October 2011, University of Manchester
Plenary Speaker: Briony Jones
Bringing Social Theory back into Issues of Development, 17th June 2011.
Uma Kothari, University of Manchester / Tim Jacoby, University of Manchester
Presenter: Briony Jones, swisspeace
Research Partners and Networks
Oxford Transitional Justice Research
OTJR is an inter-disciplinary network of staff and students at the University of Oxford working broadly on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and /or repressive rule. Link
Research Network on Contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina
This network meets annually and has held two international conferences, produced an edited volume of Transitions on From Peace to Shared Political Identities, and provides the foundation for the current SCOPES Institutional Partnership between the University of Sarajevo and the University of Zurich.
The Dealing with the Past Programme is a member of the independent and informal Arbeitskreis Forschung Vergangenheitspolitik.
Briony Jones is also a Co-Commissioner along with Wendy Lambourne for the International Peace Research Association Reconciliation and Transitional Justice Commission. Link
