Speakers

Professor James Meernik, University of North Texas

Professor Kimi King, University of North Texas

Chair

Professor Louise Mallinder, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor James Meernik and the Castleberry Peace Institute at the University of North Texas have been working with former combatants and members of armed organizations in Colombia including the Colombian military, the leftist FARC Guerillas, the AUC paramilitary forces, and the leaders of criminal organizations currently in prison and working on the government’s “total peace” plan.

The Castleberry Peace Institute and its’ Colombian partners have surveyed and interviewed all groups about the challenges they face with reintegration; how they became involved in violence, and how armed structures can be demobilized and peace built.  They also collaborate with former combatants and victims’ groups on reconciliation, education and the development of productive enterprises.

Professor Meernik will describe how these research processes have functioned and what has been learned so far in efforts to dismantle armed structures, build peace and reintegrate former combatants.  Professor Kimi King will discuss briefly some of our ongoing research on historical memory and transitional justice.  

Professor Meernik will also discuss opportunities to collaborate with the Castleberry Peace Institute.

Biographies of University of North Texas Team

Jason Buono is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas.  His dissertation examines how past civil conflict impacts future protest behaviors.  Jason has worked alongside the Colombia Project to record the stories of the disappeared, and hopes to expand his research into victims around the world.  His future research interests focus on reconciliation and mobilization in post-conflict states.

J. Michael Greig is Professor of Political Science and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas and a senior research fellow at the Castleberry Peace Institute.  He completed his PhD in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His teaching and research explore conflict and security in the international system, with a focus on the onset and management of intrastate and interstate conflicts.  His published research has appeared in a variety of outlets, including International Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Journal of Peace Research, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Journal of Politics, and the American Journal of Political Science.  He is also co-author of the books International Conflict Management (Polity 2019) and International Mediation (Polity Press, 2012) and the co-editor of the edited volume International Conflict and Conflict Management (Routledge, 2023).

Shelby Jackson is PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas.  His dissertation examines how political violence impacts the construction of ethnic and national identities.  Shelby has worked with former combatants and victims of the Troubles in his dissertation studies, and Northern Ireland has become a central focus of his research.  While an early career researcher, he plans to continue to focus on reconciliation and human security in post-conflict states.

Kimi Lynn King is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science.  Her interdisciplinary research interests include transitional justice, international humanitarian law and tribunals, human and civil rights, gender and sexual violence, and post-conflict reconciliation and restorative justice.  Along with Dr. James Meernik and the Victims and Witnesses Unit at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), she conducted a 6-year survey on the short- and long-term impact of testifying on prosecution and defense witnesses before war crimes tribunals.  It is the largest in-depth study to date of witness motivations, needs related to security, physical and psycho-social well-being, a well as perceptions of truth and justice.  From this research they published: Judging Justice: How Victim Witnesses Evaluate International Courts (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and The Witness Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2017).  She is currently working on projects with the UNT Colombia group including projects with women who are former FARC-EP, paramilitary, and military combatants.  The work broadly examines their post-conflict transition into civilian society and works to enhance economic capacity by working with a non-profit to market goods made by the women.

James Meernik is Regents Professor of Political Science; the Christian Family Peace Professor and Director of the Castleberry Peace Institute at the University of North Texas.  He has taught at the University of North Texas since 1991.  He specializes in research on post conflict peace building, reintegration of former combatants, reconciliation, political violence and language endangerment, and international tribunals.  Currently, Professor Meernik is working on projects related to ex-combatants and victims, social entrepreneurship, and transitional justice with organizations and universities in Colombia.  His most recent publications include International Tribunals and Human Security (Rowman and Littlefield Press, 2016); Judgment Day (Cambridge University Press, 2017, with Rosa Aloisi); The Witness Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2017, with Kimi King); Judging Justice (University of Michigan Press, 2019, with Kimi King); and As War Ends: What Colombia Can Tell Us about the Sustainability of Peace and Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2019, co-edited with Mauricio Uribe and Jacqueline Demeritt).  He is currently working on an NSF-funded project involving peacebuilding in Medellin.

Chair biography

Louise Mallinder researches the intersections between law and peace and is a recognized international expert on amnesties.  She is the author of Amnesties, Political Transitions and Human Rights (Hart 2009) and Lawyers in Conflict and Peace (with K. McEvoy and A. Bryson, CUP 2022).  She is currently co-editing the Encyclopedia of Law and Peace (with R. Killean and L. Dempster, Elgar 2025) and is writing a monograph entitled The Future of Amnesties: The Legality and Limits of the Anti-Amnesty Norm in International Law.

Louise is the Deputy Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and a Professor of Law.  She was appointed as the 2024 Pozen Professor of Human Rights at the University of Chicago.  This is a Visiting Professor appointment that is awarded annually to 'distinguished human rights scholars or practitioners'.  She continues to be a Faculty Affiliate of the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts at the University of Chicago.  She has been elected as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.  In addition, she is a member of the Institute for Integrated Transitions Law and Peace Practice Group.