Dr Roxani Krystalli is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Her research and teaching focus on feminist peace and conflict studies, as well as on the politics of nature and place. A key question animating Roxani's work within and beyond the academy is how people imagine and enact worlds in the wake of loss.
Roxani is the co-Principal Investigator of a research project on the role of love and care in illuminating richer understandings of loss, politics, and place. The work is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation, and unfolds in collaboration with Dr Philipp Schulz at the University of Bremen. Roxani's first book, Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question (Oxford University Press, 2024), is based on in-depth engagement in Colombia over the course of a decade. In it, Roxani argues for the possibilities of politics through, rather than in opposition to, the status of "victim." Encompassing acts of care, agency, and haunting, the politics of victimhood entangle people who identify as victims, researchers, and transitional justice professionals. Roxani shows how victimhood becomes a pillar of reimagining the state in the wake of war, and of bringing a vision of that state into being through bureaucratic encounters. Good Victims also sheds light on the ethical and methodological dilemmas that arise when contemplating the legacies of transitional justice mechanisms. Roxani's research on the politics and hierarchies of victimhood in Colombia received the Peter Ackerman Award for best PhD dissertation at The Fletcher School in 2020. In the same year, her article on the ethics and methods of narrating victimhood was the runner-up for the Cynthia Enloe prize at the International Feminist Journal of Politics. For over a decade, Roxani has worked at the intersection of gender and peace-building as an academic researcher and humanitarian practitioner. Roxani has partnered with various organizations, including Oxfam GB, Mercy Corps, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Feinstein International Center, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, and Beyond Borders, to shed light on the experiences of conflict-affected communities. Her work has particularly focused on developing ethical and rigorous methodologies for documenting gendered harms. She regularly advises international organizations and NGOs on gender, justice, and peacebuilding. An enthusiastic teacher who embraces feminist pedagogies, Roxani has won and been shortlisted for several awards, nominated by her students, faculty colleagues, and managers. In 2023, the British International Studies Association honoured Roxani with the Early Career Excellence in Teaching International Studies award. The class she designed and teaches on The Politics of Nature and Place has also received the Golden Dandelion Award at the University of St Andrews "in recognition of considerable contribution to education for sustainable development." Beyond her academic writing, Roxani shares occasional essays on Stories of Conflict and Love, whose blog predecessor won the Best Individual Blog award from the International Studies Association in 2019. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Henry J. Leir Institute, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, and the World Peace Foundation. Roxani holds a PhD and MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a BA from Harvard University. She is from Thessaloniki, Greece, and lives in Scotland. |
Creative writingThis website primarily discusses Roxani's work as an academic and peacebuilding professional. In addition to these pursuits, Roxani is a storyteller who thinks and writes about nature and place, memory and loss, attention and care, and notions of home. Those reflections can be found on her (very occasional) newsletter, Stories of Conflict and Love.
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