14.09.2020 Welcome to Dr. Eva Willems and Pia Falschebner M.A., scientific collaborators in the new project "Politics of Reparations of Victim Organisations"

Photo: Eva Willems (2015)

The Center for Conflict Studies welcomes Dr. Eva Willems and Pia Falschebner M.A. as scientific collaborators in the new DFG-funded research project Politics of Reparations of Victim Organisations in Transitional Justice Processes in the research group of Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bonacker.

Eva Willems obtained her PhD in History from the University of Ghent with a thesis on the implementation and contestation of transitional justice after the Peruvian internal armed conflict, for which she conducted extensive fieldwork with survivors and ex-combatants in rural communities. She is especially interested in the micro-dynamics of post-conflict coexistence, survivor identity and temporality in transitional justice processes.

Pia Falschebner studied the B.A. Applied African Studies at the University of Bayreuth and the M.A. Peace and Conflict Studies at the Philipps-University of Marburg. Her studies involved extended stays abroad in the UK, South Africa and Uganda. Her research interests include dealing with the past, memory, post-colonial theory, identity and conflict, and social movements.

The research project Politics of Reparations of Victim Organisations in Transitional Justice Processes focuses on the reparation politics of victim groups and asks for the reasons for selective reparations across different cases. It looks into survivor groups' positions regarding reparations as well as processes and dynamics of claim-making, mobilization and enforcement around the topic. By using a comparative approach, the project aims to identify causal factors responsible for the reparation of victims in different post-conflict settings and to further our theoretical understanding of the topic.