Dr. Kristine Andra Avram

My research sits at the intersection of peace and conflict studies, narratology, and the social sciences—particularly anthropology, criminology, psychology, and the sociology of law. I explore meaning-making and interpretative processes in the context of (past) political violence and state repression, focusing on concepts such as responsibility, truth, and hope, along with the practices that emerge around them. Central to my work is the idea that our understanding of violence, harm, justice, or the future is profoundly shaped by the stories we tell—about violent events, about others, and about ourselves.

Taking an interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival approach, I draw on interpretative—particularly narrative and (auto)ethnographic—methods to uncover the complexity of meaning-making in (post-)conflict and repressive contexts. I examine how narratives shape interpretations of violence, influence individual and collective processes of reckoning with traumatic experiences or a violent past, and inform (transitional) justice efforts, responsibility practices, or future-making. Ultimately, my research seeks to demonstrate how storytelling, as a site of agency and resistance, can serve both as a means of reckoning with (past) violence and repression and as a way of envisioning more just and hopeful futures.

2024 – 2025 | Post-doctoral fellow in BMBF-project Transformations of Political Violence, Centre for Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg

2022 – 2024 | Advisor on peace with a focus on civil conflict resolution, memory work (oral history projects), and arms export control, pax christi Rhein-Main, Frankfurt/M.

2022 | PhD in Political Science (focus on Peace and Conflict Studies) at Philipps University Marburg awarded, summa cum laude (with the highest distinction)

2017 – 2022 | Research fellow in project Ascribing Individual Criminal Responsibility in the Aftermath of Collective Violence and Repression: Interpretations of Criminal Proceedings in Post-Communist Romania, Centre for Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg

2016 – 2017 | Research assistant in research unit 2 “Global Cultural Conflicts and Transcultural Cooperation”, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research at University of Duisburg-Essen

2014 – 2015 | Consultant in the Sector Programme for Peace and Security, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Frankfurt/M.

2012 | Intern at Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Maputo (Mozambique)

2010 – 2013 | MA in Peace and Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg, including study abroad at the University of Haifa (Israel)

2010 | Student research assistant at Chair for International and Comparative Communication Study (Prof. Dr.  Kai Hafez), University of Erfurt

2007 – 2010 | BA in Communication Science (major) and Romance Studies, University of Erfurt, including Erasmus at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain)

Special Issue

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

Journal articles

2025. Introducing the Staged Narrative Analysis: A Comprehensive Framework to Analyze Multi-Layered and Complex Narrative Data. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 26(1).

2025. Listening to, Reconstructing, and Writing about Stories of Violence: A Research Journey Amidst Personal Loss. Genealogy, 8(1), 14. (Special Issue “Stories of Violence, War, and Displacement: Intersections of Life, Research, and Knowledge Production”)

2024. Narrating Communist Repression in and Outside the Courtroom: The Case of Former Prison Commander Alexandru Vișinescu and its Resonance with (Societally) Available ‘Narrative Worlds’. Social & Legal Studies, 33(1), 82-103. 

2023. Of Evil Men and Zealous State Agents: The Villain in Criminal Trials for Past Human Rights Violations in Post-Communist Romania. Saeculum, 73(1), 67-98. (Special Issue “Villains. Constructing Narratives of Evil")

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 

2025 (forthcoming). Challenging Peacebuilding from a Postcolonial Perspective. 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.

Other publications

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.

Presentations and roundtables (selection)

03/2024 | Global Peace and Conflict Studies: Paving the way for an Emerging Research Agenda (Roundtable); AFK-Kolloquium “Disciplines of Peace and Conflict Research in Dialogue”, Darmstadt

09/2023 | Romania's Efforts to Prosecute Past Violence and Repression: On the Pitfalls of Individual Accountability and the Fluidity of Justice; EISA PEC 2023: 16th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, Potsdam

07/2022 | The War in Ukraine: Social Consequences in the Region (Roundtable); Zentrumstage 2022 "Societal Conflicts: Collective Action in an Unequal World", Marburg

03/2021 | In times of right-wing and racist terror (Online-Roundtable); Junge AFK Tagung "Radicalization and Collective Violence", Magdeburg

10/2020 | 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

12/2019 | A Kaleidoscopic View of Narratives about the Past in Romania; Zentrumskolloquium, Marburg

03/2019 | 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

02/2019 | 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

07/2018 | Legal Narratives and Societal Interpretations – Different Stories of the Past in Post-Communist Romania; ECPR General Conference, Hamburg

10/2017 | “Crimes (...) are committed by men, not by abstract entities". Zur (individuellen) Verantwortlichkeit in Erzählungen über eine gewaltsame Vergangenheit; Fünfte Offene Sektionstagung der DVPW-Sektion „Internationale Beziehungen", Bremen

12/2016 | 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

10/2016 | Marcel Mauss in International Studies (with Christine Unrau and Volker Heins): Käte Hamburger Kolleg Research Colloquium, Duisburg

Lectures and talks 

02/2025 | Multi-perspectival narrative studies as a reparative research methodology (Input at Workshop “Reparative Research: Exchanging ideas, practices, and visions”); Free University of Berlin

01/2025 | Umang mit den Folgen von Gewalt und Konflikt [Dealing with the Consequences of Violence and Conflict], (Guest Lecture in MA lecture series “Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies”); University of Marburg

06/2024 | Research in the context of (past) violence and repression (Guest lecture in MA seminar “Foundations and Methods of Autoethnography”), University of Marburg

10/2023 | Bucharest – Transformation Processes (Table Talks within the event “Palace Meeting”: Post/Socialist Palaces); Humboldt Forum Berlin

10/2023 | Rumäniens bewegte Vergangenheit und der Rashomon-Effekt: Divergierende Erzählungen über das kommunistische Regime und die Dezemberereignisse 1989; [Romania’s Tumultuous Past and the Rashomon Effect: Diverging Narratives of the Communist Regime and the December 1989 Events]; Branch of the Southeast Europe Association, University of Regensburg

10/2022 | Völkerstrafrecht: Einblicke in seine Anwendung und Wahrnehmung [International Criminal Law: Insights into its Application and Perception]; Hessischer Politiklehrer:innentag 2022 „Die Komplexität internationaler Beziehungen und ihre Thematisierung im Politikunterricht“, Frankfurt/M.

09/2020 | Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (Online-Lecture); SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa“, University of Hildesheim

11/2019 | Introduction to Narrative Analysis (Guest Lecture in MA research seminar “Peace and the Politics of Memory”); University of Marburg

10/2019 | Narrating Past Violence and Repression in National Courts - Insights from the Romanian Context; International Research- and Documentation Centre for War Crimes (ICWC), Marburg

11/2018 | Conflict, Change, and Transformation (Online-Lecture); SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability “, University of Hildesheim

09/2017 | Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies; SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability", Abuja (Nigeria)

Winter term 2023/2024 | BA/MA course "Narrative Rekonstruktionen der Vergangenheit“[Narrative reconstructions of the past], Goethe University 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" [Narrative reconstructions of the past], Philipps University Marburg

03/ 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 research seminar "Täter*innen, Bystander, und andere Beteiligte - Methodische Annäherung an Narrative über die Vergangenheit" [Perpetrators, bystanders, and other participants - a methodological approach to narratives about the past] (with Philipp Schultheiß), Philipps University Marburg

02/2018 | Seminar "Konfliktberichterstattung und die Macht der Bilder" [Conflict reporting and the power of images] (with Jonas Jordan), Journalist academy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Köln

09/ 2017 | Workshop "Conflict Analysis", SDG Graduate School "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa", Abuja (Nigeria)

Winter term 2016/2017 | BA course "Komplexe Notsituationen und aktuelle Konflikte” [Complex Emergencies and Current Conflicts] (with Mariam Salehi), Philipps University Marburg

Summer term 2016 | BA course "Aushandlung von Täter- und Opferschaft nach kollektiver Gewalt" [Negotiating perpetrator and victimhood after collective violence], Philipps University Marburg

06/2016 | Seminar "Konfliktjournalismus" [Conflict journalism] (with Jonas Jordan), Journalist academy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Köln

2023 | Mobility Grant, European International Studies Association (EISA)

2023 | Dissertation Award for PhD thesis “Responsibility: A Kaleidoscopic View", Südost-europagesellschaft [Southeast Europe Association]

2023 | Honorable Mention for PhD thesis, Gert-Sommer-Award for Peace Psychology of the Forum Friedenspsychologie [Forum for Peace Psychology]

2021 – 2022 | Scholarship, Marburg University Research Academy (MARA)

2017 – 2022 | Research Grant, Fritz Thyssen Foundation; research project “Ascribing Individual Criminal Responsibility in the Aftermath of Collective Violence and Repression”; co-applicant with Prof. Dr. Susanne Buckley-Zistel as PI

2011 – 2012 | Scholarship Award, University of Haifa (Israel)

2009 | ERASMUS Scholarship to the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain)

2009 – 2013 | Scholarship, Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES)