Research

My research is located at the intersection of International Relations and Peace and Conflict Research. I am broadly interested in struggles for change and justice, as well as knowledge politics with a focus on violence, conflict and security. 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, as well as in Barbados, Ethiopia, Germany, and Lebanon. For my second single-authored book project, I am exploring the interplay between (supposedly) technocratic and emancipatory struggles for justice against the backdrop of global knowledge orders.

Current Projects

I lead the project Knowing Violence, Shaping Justice: Technocratic and Anticolonial Worldmaking at INTERACT. Within the project, we currently work on two articles, one on reparations in a multipolar world (with Annelise Finney and Laura Kotzur), the other on the non-state political economy of reparations in the British-Caribbean space (with Laura Kotzur).

Together with Jan Wilkens, I am PI of the project Hijacked Just Transition? Climate Crisis, Justice, and Struggles over Order, funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (starting at the end of 2026).

Publications

Google Scholar

Monograph

2022

• Transitional Justice in Process: Plans and Politics in Tunisia: Manchester: Manchester University Press. Paperback edition published in 2024.

Articles (peer-reviewed)

2026

• The Politics of Repair in a Broken World. In: Geopolitics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2026.2695034. (Forum with Tasniem Anwar, Matthew Gravlin, Debbie Lisle, Nathaniel O’Grady and Delf Rothe).

• Theorising the violence-resistance-nexus in the context of Gaza: towards a situated research perspective. In: Critical Studies on Terrorism. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2026.2697636. (With Jannis Grimm and Hannah Franzki).

• 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

• Verpflichtung zum Aufarbeiten von Konflikten ernstnehmen. In: Tagesspiegel, Beilage Neues aus Wissenschaft und Forschung, 9 May 2025.

• 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 March 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).