Dr. Kristine Andra Avram

International criminal law and transitional justice

Sociology of law (in transitional contexts)

Responsibility (practices)

Narratives of violence and/or repression

Narrative analysis

Regional Focus: Sub-Sahara Africa, Eastern Europe

May 2017 - March 2022: Research fellow in project “Ascribing Individual Responsibility in the Aftermath of Collective Violence and Repression. Interpretations of Criminal Proceedings in Post-Communist Romania”, Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg.

July 2020 - September 2021: Research and teaching fellow at the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg.

April 2016 - September 2022: PhD candidate at the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg (supervised by Prof. Susanne Buckley-Zistel). Title: Responsibility: A Kaleidoscopic View (summa cum laude).

February 2016 – August 2017: Research assistant at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen (Research Unit 2 Global Cultural Conflicts and Transcultural Cooperation).

January 2014 – December 2015: Intern/ Consultant at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Eschborn (Sector Programme “Peace and Security”); Tutor in a refugee shelter.

October 2010 – November 2013: M.A. Peace and Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg (10/2011 – 02/2012: Study abroad at the University of Haifa, Israel, M.A. program “Peace and Conflict Management Studies”; 04/2013 – 09/2013: Tutor at the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg).

October 2007 – September 2010: B.A. Communication Science and Romance Studies at the University of Erfurt (02/2009 – 07/2009: Study abroad at Universidad Complutense de Madrid; 04/2010 – 07/2010: Research assistant at the Chair for International and Comparative Communication Studies, University of Erfurt).

October 2022: Workshop on "Völkerstrafrecht: Einblicke in seine Anwendung und Wahrnehmung", Hessischer Politiklehrer:innentag, Frankfurt.

Summer term 2021: MA course "Responsibility in and beyond Peace and Conflict Studies", Philipps University Marburg.

Winter term 2020/2021: BA and MA course "Narrative Rekonstruktionen der Vergangenheit", Philipps University Marburg.

March 2019: Seminar on "Conflict narratives and narrative analysis", SDG Graduate School “Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa”, University of Cape Coast (Ghana).

Summer term 2018 & winter term 2018/2019: MA course "Täter*innen, Bystander, und andere Beteiligte - Methodische Annäherung an Narrative über die Vergangenheit" (with Philipp Schultheiß), Philipps University Marburg.

February 2018: Four-day seminar on "Konfliktberichterstattung und die Macht der Bilder" (with Jonas Jordan), Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Köln.

September 2017: Workshop on "Conflict Analysis", SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa", Abuja (Nigeria).

Winter term 2016/2017: BA course "Complex Emergencies and Current Conflicts" (with Mariam Salehi), Philipps University Marburg.

Summer term 2016: BA course "Aushandlung von Täter- und Opferschaft nach kollektiver Gewalt", Philipps University Marburg.

June 2016: Four-day seminar on "Krisenjournalismus" (with Jonas Jordan), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Köln.

The War in Ukraine: Social Consequences in the Region (Roundtable), Zentrumstage 2022 "Societal Conflicts: Collective Action in an Unequal World", Marburg, 16 July 2022.

The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions (Book talk with Ulrike Capdepón, Rosario Figari Layus, Annette Weinke and Aleida Assmann), Forschungskolloquium des Zentrums für Konfliktforschung, Marburg, 12 April 2021.

In times of right-wing and racist terror (Roundtable), Junge AFK Tagung "Radicalization and Collective Violence", Magdeburg, 17 March 2021.

Reconstructing Past Violence and State Repression in Romania: Polychronic Storytelling in Narratives of Former Securitate Officers, Zentrumstage 2020 "(Re)thinking Time and Temporalities in Peace and Conflict”, Marburg, 30 October 2020.

A Kaleidoscopic View of Narratives about the Past in Romania, Zentrumskolloquium Marburg, 16 December 2019.

Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (Lecture), SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa", Cape Coast (Ghana), 7 March 2019.

Different Stories of the Past in Post-Communist Romania: Legal and Societal Perspectives on Former Prison Commander Alexandru Vişinescu, OxonCourts 1st Judicial Studies Graduate Colloquium, Oxford, 1 March 2019.

Of Evil Men and Zealous State Agents – The Villain in Criminal Trials for Past Human Rights Violations in Post-Communist Romania, GCSC International Conference “Villains! Constructing Narratives of Evil”, Gießen, 8 February 2019.

Legal Narratives and Societal Interpretations – Different Stories of the Past in Post-Communist Romania, ECPR General Conference, Section: Human Rights and Transitional Justice, Hamburg, 23 August 2018.

Narrating the Past in Post-Communist Romania – Insights from Fieldwork, Forschungskolloquium des Zentrums für Konfliktforschung, Marburg, 23 April 2018.

Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (Lecture), SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa", Abuja (Nigeria), 18 September 2017.

„Crimes (...) are comitted by men, not by abstract entities". Zur (individuellen) Verantwortlichkeit in Erzählungen über eine gewaltsame Vergangenheit, Fünfte Offene Sektionstagung der DVPW-Sektion „Internationale Beziehungen", Universität Bremen, 6 October 2017.

Individualizing Guilt in the Aftermath of Collective Violence and Repression - Mapping Narratives of Responsibility, 6th Annual Conference of the Historical Dialogues, Justice, and Memory Network "Confronting Violent Pasts and Historical (In)Justice", Amsterdam, 3 December 2016.

Marcel Mauss in International Studies (with Christine Unrau and Volker Heins), Käte Hamburger Kolleg Research Colloquium, Duisburg, 26 October 2016.

Individualizing Guilt in the Aftermath of Collective Violence and Repression - Mapping Narratives of Responsibility, Zentrumstage 2016 "On Collective Violence. Actions, Roles, Perceptions", Marburg, 21 October 2016.

Edited journal

2018. Special Issue: Marcel Mauss in International Relations, Journal of International Political Theory 14 (2), Editor (with Volker Heins und Christine Unrau).

Peer-reviewed articles

2023 (forthcoming). Narrating communist repression in and outside the courtroom: The case of former prison commander Alexandru Vișinescu and its resonance with (societally) available ‘narrative worlds’. Socio & Legal Studies.

2023 (forthcoming). Of Evil Men and Zealous State Agents: The Villain in Criminal Trials for Past Human Rights Violations in Post-Communist Romania. SAECULUM Special Issue on Narratives of Evil.

2019 (forthcoming). Courts as a Site to Tell the Truth: The Case of Former Prison Commander Alexandru Vişinescu. In: Ulrike Capdepón & Rosario Figari Layús (eds.) The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions:  Insights from European, Latin American, and African Post-Authoritarian and Conflict Societies. Leuven University Press.

2018. Gift-giving and reciprocity in global society: Introducing Marcel Mauss in international studies, Journal of International Political Theory 14 (2): 126-144 (with Volker Heins und Christine Unrau).

Chapters in edited volumes

2023 (forthcoming). Dealing with the present – spatial and temporal continuities in Transitional Justice and Peacebuildung through a decolonial lense. In: Solveig Richter & Siddharth Tripathi (eds.) R&L Handbook on Peace and Conflict Studies: Perspectives from the Global South(s). Rowman and Littlefield (with Susanne Buckley-Zistel and Alexandra Engelsdorfer).

2020. Courts as a Site to Tell the Truth: The Case of Former Prison Commander Alexandru Vişinescu. In: Ulrike Capdepón & Rosario Figari Layús (eds.) The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions:  Insights from European, Latin American, and African Post-Authoritarian and Conflict Societies. Leuven University Press: 51-70.

Non-peer-reviewed work

2019 Nach dem Konflikt ist vor dem Konflikt? Zur Linearität und (Post-)kolonialität in Peacebuilding und Transitional Justice-Prozessen, INDES. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft 2: 108-114 (with Alexandra Engelsdorfer).

2017. Transitional Justice, PERIPHERIE 1:  98-101.

Promotionspreis der Fritz und Helga Exner-Foundation;
MARA Abschlussstipendium, 10/2021 - 04/2022;
Stipendium der University of Haifa, 10/2011–02/2012;
ERASMUS Stipendium, 02/2009–07/2009;
Stipendium der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 01/2009–11/2013.