Professor Rachel Kerr

Professor Rachel Kerr is a contemporary historian working on transitional and post-conflict justice and memory and international law and war. She co-convenes the War Crimes Research Group at King’s. She also co-convenes the SSPP Visual and Embodied Methodologies Network with Dr Jelke Boesten (Development Studies) and Professor Cathy McIlwaine (Geography).

Rachel joined King’s in 2003 as a Lecturer to develop the now long-standing War Studies Online programmes, having previously worked in academic publishing for Polity Press. She holds a BA in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds and an MA and PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.

In 2009-10, she was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and from 2011-13, a Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Historical Society.

 

Research

• International law, politics and justice
• War crimes
• Transitional/post-conflict justice
• Art and reconciliation

Rachel’s research focuses on war crimes, post-conflict justice and reconciliation and international law, politics and justice.

Together with James Gow, she leads a programme of research investigation creative and arts-based approaches to peacebuilding and reconciliation: Art and Reconciliation: Conflict, Culture and Community

 

Publications

• ‘The ‘Digital Turn’ in Transitional Justice Research: Evaluating Image and Text as Data in the Western Balkans’ Kostovicova, D., Kerr, R., Fairey, T., Redwood, H., Sokolic, I. & Subotic, J., 11 Apr 2022, In: Comparative Southeast European Studies. 70, 1, p. 24-46 22 p
• ‘Genocide and the Limits of Transitional Justice’ Kerr, R. C., 2022, Genocide: Key Themes. Bloxham, D. & Moses, D. (eds.). Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford
• ‘The International Criminal Court, preliminary examinations, and the Security Council: Kill or cure?’ Kuhrt, N. & Kerr, R., 1 Oct 2021, In: Journal of Global Faultlines. 8, 2, p. 172-185 14 p.
• Reconciliation After War: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective Kerr, R. C. (ed.), Redwood, H. A. (ed.) & Gow, A. J. W. (ed.), 2021, , Routledge. (Contemporary Security Studies)
• ‘Fabricating Reconciliation in Canada’ Kerr, R. C., 1 Jan 2021, Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts : Global Perspectives on Commemoration and Mobilization. Boesten, J. & Scanlon, H. (eds.). Routledge, p. 155-171 17 p.
• ‘What Works? Creative approaches to transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ Fairey, T. & Kerr, R., Mar 2020, In: International Journal Of Transitional Justice. 14, 1, p. 142–164 23 p.
• ‘Art, Aesthetics, Justice, and Reconciliation: What can art do?’ Kerr, R., 2020, In: AJIL Unbound. 114, p. 123-127 5 p.
• New Bearings in Post-Conflict Evaluation: A Principle-Based Approach Fairey, T., Kerr, R., Petrovic, J. & Gow, J., 11 Dec 2020, London: King's College London. 37 p.
• Art and Exclusion: Visual and Embodied Methodologies Network Exhibition Catalogue Behzadi, N. E., Boesten, J., Kerr, R., McIlwaine, C., de Orellana, P., Peake, J. & Redwood, H., 9 Jun 2019, 32 p.
• Routledge Handbook of War, Law and Technology Gow, J. (ed.), Dijxhoorn, E. (ed.), Kerr, R. C. (ed.) & Verdirame, G. (ed.), 2019, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 448 p.
• ‘The UK in Iraq and the ICC: Judicial Intervention, Positive Complementarity and the Politics of International Criminal Justice’ Kerr, R., 31 Aug 2018, Quality Control in Preliminary Examinations: Reviewing Impact, Policies and Practices. Bergsmo, M. & Stahn, C. (eds.). Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, (FICHL Publication Series; vol. 28).
• ‘Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Contexts: Opportunities and Challenges’ Kerr, R., 12 May 2017, Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies. Duthie, R. & Seils, P. (eds.). New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, p. 116-139 24 p.
• The 'Art' of Reconciliation Kerr, R. C., 9 May 2017, FICHL Policy Brief Series, 78.
• ‘Tyrannies of Peace and Justice? Liberal Peacebuilding and the Politics and Pragmatics of Transitional Justice’ Kerr, R. C., Mar 2017, In: International Journal of Transitional Justice. 10, 3, p. 176-185 10 p.

Rachel's Pure page

 

Teaching

• 7SSWM225 Conflict, Rights and Justice
• 7SSWM186 International Law and the Use of Force
• 6SSW3036 War and Genocide
• 6SSW3037 Contending with Legacies of Atrocity

Professor Kerr currently supervises PhD students working on the following topics:

• UK war crimes trials in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Justice and reintegration in post-conflict Central African Republic
• Anglo-American Diplomacy, Human Rights and the Slave Trade
• Contending with reconciliation and legacies of atrocity in Nigeria
• Post-conflict education and transitional justice in Sri Lanka

 

Research centres

• War Crimes Research Group
• Arts and Conflict Hub
• Conflict Records Unit
• Visual and Embodied Methodologies Network