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Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding

From Static to Dynamic Discourses across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups (JUSTINT)

Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding: From Static to Dynamic Discourses across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups (JUSTINT) is a five-year project led by Dr Denisa Kostovicova and funded by the European Research Council.

The JUSTINT project provides a novel way of analysing how post-conflict justice practices advance or hinder peace-building by studying an interactive and dynamic aspect of discourse. Until now, we have relied on statements by politicians, civil society actors or victims to understand their response to post-conflict justice, and studied them as static discourses. JUSTINT turns to the study of communicative exchanges to understand how discussions about the violent past unfold, and to what effect.  It innovates in the field of transitional justice by studying justice discourses at the level of words and conversational sequences. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to interactions in face-to-face and virtual deliberative domains (courts, parliaments, civil society debates, blogs, Web-based comments, and Twitter) in four former Yugoslav countries: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Croatia. The JUSTINT project offers a theory of justice interactions at the intersection of peace-building and deliberation.

Principal investigator 

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Dr Denisa Kostovicova is an Associate Professor at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Research team

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Dr Ivor Sokolić is a Research Officer on the JUSTINT project at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Dr Vesna Popovski is a Research Assistant on the JUSTINT project at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Dr Sanja Vico is a Research Officer on the JUSTINT project at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Venera Cocaj is a PhD candidate in European Studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Sarah Jewett is an MRes/PhD candidate in Political Science at the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Peer Collaborators

Paul Drew

Paul Drew is Professor in the Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York.

 

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Dr Tolga Sinmazdemir is a Senior Lecturer in Political Methodology in the Department of Politics and International Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

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Contributors

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Lanabi la Lova is a Research Assistant on the JUSTINT Project at the European Institute and a PhD Candidate at the Department of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Papers and publications

Published papers

Pending update

Working papers

Pending update

Events and conferences

Conferences, Seminars and Workshops

Quantitative Study of Discourse: The Last Methodological Gap in Transitional Justice Research? 

Date: 7 July 2021
City: Barcelona 
Organiser: Working Group: Transitional Justice: theories, methods and practices; XV Congress of the Spanish Association of Political Science (Asociación Espaňola de Ciencia Política y de la Administración)
Speaker: Dr Denisa Kostovicova


Remembering Yugoslavia’s Wars: Reflections on the RECOM Network 

Date: 28 June 2021
City: Regensburg
Organiser: Leibniz Institute for East and South East Europe Research (Leibniz-Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung), South East Europe Association (Südosteuropa Gesellschaft) and Graduate Programme for East and South East Europe Research (Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien) 
Speaker: Dr Denisa Kostovicova 


Women’s Discursive Agency in Transitional Justice: Gendering Parliamentary Questions in the Croatian Parliament

Date:  6 May 2021
City: New York
Organiser: Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention 
Speaker: Dr Denisa Kostovicova and Dr Vesna Popovski


Conference Panel: Assessing Effects of Transitional Justice Interactions in the Balkans: Deliberation, Emotions and Politics 

Date:  5 May 2021
City: New York
Organiser: Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention
Speaker: Dr Denisa Kostovicova


Reciprocity in justice interactions: How to classify it and what triggers it?

Date:  5 May 2021
City: New York
Organiser: Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention 
Speaker:
Dr Ivor Sokolić


The Role of Mediated and Face-to-Face Interactions in Shaping Discourses about the Yugoslav Wars

Date:  5 May 2021
City: New York
Organiser: Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention 
Speaker: Dr Sanja Vico


Public Sphere and War Time Rape: Silence breaking and social recognition 

Date:  5 May 2021
City: New York
Organiser: Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention
Speaker: Venera Cocaj


Gendering Parliamentary Questions: National Consensus and Transitional Justice in Croatia 

Date: 6 April 2021
City: London 
Organiser: The XXXth Annual Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) Conference  
Speakers: Dr Denisa Kostovicova and Dr Vesna Popovski


The Politics of Memory and Remembrance Practices in Southeast Europe

Date: 22 October 2020
Organiser: Humanitarian Law centre Kosovo - Coalition for RECOM
Speakers: Venera Cocaj


Workshop on Empathy and Reconciliation

Date: 17-18 February 2020
City: London, Ontario 
Organiser: Western University 
Speakers: Dr Ivor Sokolić ('Inter-ethnic Reciprocity in Transitional Justice Deliberation')


Silence Breakers and Wartime Sexual Violence: Affiliation and Disaffiliation in the Public Sphere in Kosovo 

Date: 8 January 2020 
City: London
Organiser: LSE Mannheim Doctoral Working Group 
Speaker: Venera Cocaj 


Annual International Conference of the Serbian Political Science Association

Date: 28 September 2019
City:
Belgrade
Organiser: 
Serbian Political Science Association
Speakers:
Dr Ivor Sokolić ('My kind of justice: The role of self-interest in transitional justice deliberation')


Young people and knowledge about the past

Date: 19-20 September 2019
City: Vukovar
Organiser: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Speakers: Dr Ivor Sokolić 


Knowledge Claims in Transitional Justice Research: New Data and Methods (Conference Panel)

Date: 17 June 2019
City: Belgrade
Organiser: Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA)-International Studies Association (ISA) 2019 Joint International Conference
Speakers: Dr Denisa Kostovicova


Public Interactions and War Time Rape: Mechanisms of Silencing the Victims of Sexual Violence

Date: 17 June 2019
City: Belgrade
Organiser: Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA)-International Studies Association (ISA) 2019 Joint International Conference
Speakers: Venera Cocaj


 

Does the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Change Its Defendants? A Text Analysis Approach to Remorse, Guilt, and Reconciliation

Date: 17 June 2019
City: Belgrade
Organiser: Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA)-International Studies Association (ISA) 2019 Joint International Conference
Speakers: Sarah Jewett 


After the ICTY: Regional Cooperation, Accountability, Truth and Justice in the Former Yugoslavia

Date: 3-4 October 2018
City: Sarajevo
Organiser: Balkan Inverstigative Reporting Network (BIRN)
Speaker: Dr Ivor Sokolić (‘Right to Truth: Victims and Regional Cooperation’)


Revisiting Dealing with the Past and Transitional Justice in the Balkans

Date: 21 September 2018
City
: Prishtina
Venue
: University of Prishtina
Speaker
: Dr Denisa Kostovicova (Keynote: ‘Addressing War Legacy in a Divided Region: Transitional Justice Evaluations and Interactions')

 

Policy Presentations

AHRC Research Network: United Nations Television in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Date: 19 May 2021
City: London
Organiser: The Imperial War Museum
Speaker: Dr Ivor Sokolić

Ivor Sokolić took part in a first-person narrative on video: testimony, uses and afterlife. Organized by the Imperial War Museum on their project “AHRC Research Network: United Nations Television in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina”. The title of the presentation was: UNTV today and tomorrow: How to evaluate its current and future benefits? Dr Sokolic spoke about how we can evaluate the impact of projects like UNTV on interethnic relations and post-conflict peace processes. 


‘Talking about Dialogue: Women’s Influence in Transitional Justice and Peace-Making, Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy (NIMD)

Date:  15 April 2021
City: The Hague
Organiser: The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD)
Speaker: Dr Denisa Kostovicova 

The JUSTINT team presented research by Denisa Kostovicova, Tolga Sinmazdemir, Lana Bilalova and Vesna Popovski on women’s participation in transitional justice debates in parliaments at a session organised by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and their global network of partners. A representative from Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) from Uganda, that works with women political leaders to support them to effectively influence political decision-making, reflected on implications for practice of the JUSTINT team’s research and its insights. These insights informed ideas on how to support women to gain more influence in political dialogues and politics, and on developing an understanding of the notion of feminist leadership. The meeting was attended by NIMD’s partners from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Guatemala, Colombia, Myanmar, and others.


'Supporting Reconciliation Processes in the Western Balkans' hosted by the Aspen Institute Germany on March 18-19.

Date: 18-19 March 2021 
City: Berlin 
Organiser: Aspen Institute Germany 
Speaker: Dr Ivor Sokolić 

Ivor Sokolić took part in the closed-door workshop with experts and practitioners from the Western Balkans who discussed key considerations for the reconciliation process in the region and elaborated practical policy recommendations on how the process can be further supported. He provided his input based on the project’s research into transitional justice and reconciliation. The workshop was followed by a closed-door discussion, designed to offer an opportunity for exchange between experts from the Western Balkans and officials from the EU, selected member states, and other European countries on how to join forces to best support reconciliation in the region. The aim of the meeting was to jointly discuss practical policy recommendations and how the international community can effectively support reconciliation processes in the region.


12th International Forum on Transitional Justice in Post-Yugoslav Countries: "Making Victims Live in the Memory of Society"

Date: 16 December 2019
City: Zagreb
Organiser: Coalition for RECOM
Speaker: Venera Cocaj

Venera Cocaj addressed a gathering of civil society activists, victims, national government representatives and representatives of the European Union, and discussed justice for victims of war crimes. 

Contact

Dr Denisa Kostovicova

London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Email: d.kostovicova@lse.ac.uk