Research
My research is located at the intersection of peace and conflict research and international politics. I am broadly interested in (conflictive) internationalised processes of change, (transitional) justice and the production and circulation of knowledge and ideas. I mostly work with interpretive research approaches and collect original data through qualitative methods, such as interviews and (participant) observation. I have mainly done field research in Tunisia and the United States.
Currently, I am exploring the interplay between (supposedly) technocratic and emancipatory struggles for justice against the backdrop of global knowledge orders, and lead the project Knowing Violence, Shaping Justice: Technocratic and Anticolonial Worldmaking at INTERACT. Within the project, Laura Kotzur and I work on a mapping and genealogy of transformative justice struggles.
Publications
Monograph
2022
- Transitional Justice in Process: Plans and Politics in Tunisia: Manchester: Manchester University Press. Paperback edition published in 2024.
Articles (peer-reviewed)
2026
- Liberal and Liberationist Transformative Justice. In: Global Studies Quarterly. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag008. (With Laura Kotzur).
2025
Dangerous Arenas: Why Activists Struggle for Change in Technocratic Institutions. In: Journal of International Relations and Development, 28:3, 346–371. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-025-00353-w. (With Felix Anderl).
Imperial Boomerangs: Transnational and Transtemporal Dimensions of Contemporary Conflict Configurations. In: Millennium: Journal of International Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298251365975. (Online first). (With Johanna Grabert and Laura Kotzur).
Hierarchies in death: coverage of Palestinian and Israeli victims in the context of October 7 and the war on Gaza. In: Peacebuilding. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2025.2569080. (Online first). (With Jannis Grimm and Justus Könneker). Most-read article in the journal in 2025.
2024
Global Hierarchies and Unequal Pressures in the Report-Making of Truth Commissions. In: International Studies Review, 26:2, viae022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viae022. (With Anne Menzel).
Frieden als Prozess. In: Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 31:1, 107-119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/0946-7165-2024-1-107. (With Thorsten Bonacker, part of a forum on “Friedenstheorie im Zeichen immer neuer Kriege“ [Peace Theory in Light of ever New Wars]).
Confined knowledge flows in transitional justice. In: Territory, Politics, Governance, 12:4, 500-518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2023.2195435. (Part of a Special Issue on „Transnational Assemblages and the Production of Security Knowledge”).
2023
- A processual framework for analysing liberal policy interventions in conflict contexts. In: Cooperation and Conflict, 58:2, 231-249. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367221104668.
2022
Introducing Justicecraft: Political Change Across Space and Time. In: Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS), 3:1, 51–108. (With the JusticeCraft Collective).
Trying just enough or promising too much? The problem-capacity-nexus in Tunisia’s transitional justice process. In: Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 16:1, 98-116. DOI: 10.1080/17502977.2021.1882756.
2016
- Beyond Peace vs. Justice: Assessing Transitional Justice’s Impact on Enduring Peace using Qualitative Comparative Analysis. In: Transitional Justice Review, 1:4, 96-123. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5206/tjr.2016.1.4.4. (With Timothy Williams).
Special Issue
- Neue Radikalität? Protest, Gewalt, ziviler Ungehorsam – Versuche einer Grenzziehung. In: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 36:2. (Co-edited with Jannis Grimm & Hannah Franzki).
Chapters and articles
2025
- Knowing Violence in International Politics. In: Bliesemann de Guevara, Berit et al. (eds.), Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics: A Handbook, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (With Werner Distler).
2024
- Reparationen für eine gerechte Weltwirtschaftsordnung? In: Veit, Alex & Daniel Fuchs (eds.), Eine gerechte Weltwirtschaftsordnung? Die »New International Economic Order« und die Zukunft der Süd-Nord-Beziehungen, Bielefeld: Transcript, 225–244.
2023
Neue Radikalität? Protest, Gewalt und ziviler Ungehorsam – Versuche einer Grenzziehung. In: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 36:2, 179–185. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/fjsb-2023-0017. (With Jannis Grimm & Hannah Franzki).
Vorschläge für eine situierte Forschungsperspektive auf Gewalt(freiheit) im Kontext sozialer Mobilisierung. In: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 36:2, 205–227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/fjsb-2023-0019. (With Jannis Grimm & Hannah Franzki).
2022
- Transnationale Gewaltordnungen und Konflikte. Tagungsbericht. In: Wissenschaft & Frieden, 2:2022, 54–55. (With Maria Ketzmerick & Regine Schwab).
2021
Transitional Justice in der Internationalen Politik. In: POLIS, 25:3, 16-18.
Tunisia’s Re-configurations and Transitional Justice in Process: How Planned Processes of Social and Political Change Interplay with Unplanned Political Dynamics. In: Reconfigurations. Contextualising Transformation Processes and Lasting Crises in the Middle East and North Africa, Eds. Ouaissa, Rachid/Pannewick, Friederike/Strohmaier, Alena. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
2020
- Designing transitional justice - Problems of planning political & institutional change in volatile political contexts. In: Challenges to the Middle East North Africa Inclusionary State, Eds. Lynch, Marc/Salloukh, Bassel POMEPS Studies 37.
2019
Frieden und Transitional Justice. In: Handbuch Frieden, Eds. Gießmann, Hans-Joachim/Rinke, Bernhard. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. (With Timothy Williams).
Zu viel versprochen? In: Internationale Politik, 02/2019.
’Droits de l’homme bien sûr!’ Human Rights and Transitional Justice in Tunisia. In: Accessing and Implementing Human Rights and Justice, Eds. Mills/Kurt and Labonte, Melissa. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
2017
- Labor Unions and Transitional Justice: An Exploratory Study on a Neglected Actor. In: Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies, Eds. Duthie, Roger/Seils, Paul. New York: International Center for Transitional Justice. (With Eva Ottendörfer, Irene Weipert-Fenner, Jonas Wolff).
2016
- Autonomy in Times of War? The Impact of the Libyan Crisis on Migratory Decisions. In: Understanding Migrant Decisions. From Sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean Region, Eds. Gebrewold, Belachew/Bloom, Tendayi. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. (With Delf Rothe).
2014
- Wahrheit und Gerechtigkeit: In Tunesien beginnt die offizielle Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit. In: Internationale Politik, 6/2014.
Online publications, guest contributions, blogs
2022
- Keine Angst vor Freiheitskämpfen. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 27 December 2022. (With Tareq Sydiq and Sara Kolah Ghoutschi).
2021
Fast and Slow Politics. In: APSA MENA Politics Newsletter 4:2 – Fall 2021.
Tunisia’s transitional justice programme highlights the danger of overpromising. In: Africa at LSE, 19. März 2021.
2019
Deutschland sollte Tunesien unterstützen. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 28 October 2019. (With Ilyas Saliba).
Transitional Justice as a Foreign Policy Issue across the Atlantic: Trends and Counter-trends. Transatlantic Perspectives Essay. Washington, DC: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.
How Tunisia is addressing its authoritarian past — and why it matters. In: The Washington Post, Monkey Cage, 15 April 2019.
2018
Transitional Justice: Aus Tunesien lernen. In: PeaceLab Blog, 18 September 2018.
Political resistance: how cross-cutting frictions drive and define transitional justice in Tunisia. In: justiceinfo.net, 18 July 2018.
2017
- Tunisia’s struggle against corruption: time to fight, not forgive. In: openDemocracy, 16 May 2017. (With Irene Weipert-Fenner).
2016
- Tunisia: performing justice in difficult times. In: openDemocracy, 21 November 2016.
2015
- Frieden durch Dialog. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 11 October 2015. (With Irene Weipert-Fenner).