December 10, 2024 1:00pm-2:00pm | Justicecraft: Imagining Justice in Times of Conflict
Posted in: Events
This roundtable discussion draws on the book, Justicecraft: Imagining Justice in Times of Political Conflict, to explore different notions of justice. In particular, participants home in on the concept of justice as a craft—a dynamic process shaped by skills, knowledge, labor, affect, and materiality. This groundbreaking framework delves into the ways individuals and communities actively shape justice through lived struggles and contested claims, illuminating how these efforts lead to social and political change. Through powerful global case studies, Justicecraft offers fresh insights into transitional and transformative justice, showing how justice-making adapts to diverse cultural and historical contexts, providing fresh ideas to transnational and cross-regional issues, such as human trafficking. The authors help readers understand justice as a hands-on process of resilience and resistance.
This is an online event on Zoom. Please register here.
Participant Bios
Lauren Balasco has taught at Stockton since the fall of 2017. Balasco earned her B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from Randolph Macon Woman’s College in 2006 and her Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Delaware in 2014. In the Political Science Program, Balasco teaches Introduction to Politics, Introduction to Comparative Politics, Comparative Politics of Human Rights, Politics of Transitional Societies, Contentious Politics, among other courses. Her most recent book, Engaging Citizenship with Jennifer Forestal (Loyola University Chicago) Claire Abernathy (Stockton University), introduces students to the field of Political Science through the lens of citizenship and civic engagement (Oxford University Press 2025). Her other research focuses on processes of transitional justice and democratization, with an emphasis on human security and human rights. In 2024, Balasco co-authored Justicecraft: Imagining Justice in Times of Political Conflict with Eliza Garnsey, Arnaud Kurze, and Christopher K. Lamont (Palgrave Macmillan). In 2022, Dr. Balasco was the recipient of the Faculty of the Year Award at Stockton University.
Arnaud Kurze is Associate Professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University and Director of Project AROS Lab. His scholarly work on transitional justice in the post-Arab Spring world focuses particularly on youth activism, art and collective memory. Dr. Kurze is currently a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, working on an international digital archives collaboration called Project AROS, aimed at improving the visualization of historical documents and data. He has published widely in academic journals, contributed to edited volumes and is author of several reports on foreign affairs for government and international organizations. He is the co-author of Mapping Global Justice: Perspectives, Cases and Practices and the book Justicecraft: Imagining Justice in Times of Conflict. He is also the co-editor of New Critical Spaces in Transitional Justice: Gender, Art & Memory. He regularly contributes analyses and op-ed articles online for think tanks and other institutions. He has been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including Fulbright, the Library of Congress and the US State Department.
The event is a collaboration between the Global Center on Human Trafficking and Research on Interdisciplinary Global Studies (RIGS).
