Book talk with Maja Davidovi?: Governing the Past: ‘Never Again' and the Transitional Justice Project
Maja Davidovi? will present her new book, Governing the Past: ‘Never Again' and the Transitional Justice Project (Cambridge University Press, August 2025).
Governing the Past rethinks what ‘Never Again’ and prevention of conflict repetition mean for conflict-affected societies. The book challenges the idea of transitional justice as a benevolent project of global governance and reevaluates the (dis)connections between two global imperatives of dealing with the past and ensuring a peaceful future. Instead of looking at individual mechanisms such as tribunals or truth commissions to better understand ‘what works’ for diverse societies, the book investigates how the governing of ‘dealing with the past’ impacts people’s perceptions of ‘Never Again.’
Drawing on numerous interviews, observations and life stories from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the book reflects on how the global project of transitional justice can keep conflict anxieties alive. It argues that in pursuit of its own survival, permanence and legitimacy, the project of transitional justice, designed to put the 'Never Again' promise into practice, makes communities that ought to benefit from it anxious about potential repetition of conflict.
Maja Davidovi? is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Cardiff University, with research expertise in transitional justice, international law, norms, and knowledge production.
The event is organised in relation to the DFF-funded project The Standardisation of Transitional Justice: Consolidation, Innovation and Politics.
Discussant: Kerstin Bree Carlson
The book talk will be in English.
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Deadline: October 1