Dr Roxani Krystalli is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of St Andrews.
The key question animating her work is what sustains life in the face of loss. She pursues this question through research, teaching, and creative writing.
Roxani co-leads an international research project on the role of love and care in helping us imagine how to live with loss. The project asks: How might we understand what people lost during war differently if we ask them about what they loved? What does it mean to love a place and what duties flow from that love? How can practices of attention transform into acts of care? Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation, the work unfolds in partnership with Dr Philipp Schulz and in collaboration with a team of researchers in Colombia, Germany, Scotland, and Uganda.
Roxani’s first book, Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. Drawing from her in-depth engagement with the peace and justice process in Colombia, Roxani argues that the status of ‘victim’ can create political possibilities, rather than elide them. Good Victims won the Lee Ann Fujii prize for innovation in the interpretive study of political violence, awarded by the American Political Science Association.
Roxani’s desire to understand what people have suffered and the stories that sit alongside loss is rooted in her work as a humanitarian professional and peacebuilding practitioner. For nearly two decades, she has partnered with international organisations, including the Feinstein International Center, Oxfam GB, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and various UN agencies to shed light on the experiences of violence-affected communities. Alongside her academic work, Roxani continues to advise international organisations on issues of gender, justice, and peacebuilding.
An enthusiastic reader, writer, and believer in the joys of public conversation, Roxani regularly hosts literary events at independent bookshops and festivals across Scotland. In her own writing, she is interested in questions of attention, memory, care, and place.
Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, among others.
She holds a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School and a BA from Harvard University.