Goldsmiths - University of London

Kirsten Campbell BA(Hons), LLB(Hons), BLitt, DPhil, Barrister a Solicitor

Kirsten’s research and teaching interests are in the fields of contemporary social theory, sociology of gender and of law. Her research draws upon feminist, psychoanalytic, and socio-legal theory to explore the contemporary relationship between subjectivity and justice.  She has an ongoing interest in methodological issues in feminist and socio-legal research.

Kirsten’s current research, The Justice of Humans:  Subjectivity, Sociality, and International Criminal Law, develops a new social theory to explain and judge war crimes, focusing upon the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. This work draws on Kirsten’s research project examining contemporary models of the legal regulation of armed conflict, Regulating Armed Conflict: From The Laws Of War To Humanitarian Law, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.   Kirsten’s research in the area of social theory and humanitarian law has been published the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Social and Legal Studies, Signs, and the Journal of Human Rights.

Kirsten’s current research builds upon her international collaborative empirical projects, which examine transitional justice mechanisms.   Kirsten is currently working with Dr Sari Wastell, Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, on the ERC funded project, ‘Spanish Bones, Bosnian Ghosts’, which compares post-conflict mechanisms in Spain and Bosnia.  It also builds on the recently completed project, The Codification of Trauma in Humanitarian Law.,which was an international collaborative project with Dr Sari Wastell and Dr Hannah Starman, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation.

Kirsten’s current research develops her earlier work exploring new forms of subjects and social relations in feminist ideas and practices of social justice.  Her book, Jacques Lacan and Feminist Epistemology, developed a social theory of feminist transformations of gendered subjects and social relations. Her research in this area has been published in various edited collections and journals, such as Economy and Society, Hypatia, and the International Journal of Sexuality and Gender.

Kirsten was a founding editor of the Australian Feminist Law Journal and currently edits the Journal of Lacanian Studies (see http://www.jlsjournal.com/).

Areas of PhD supervision include feminist, psychoanalytic and socio-legal theory, theories of subjectivity, war crimes, sociology of conflict, and transitional justice.

Selected publications

Books and edited collections

• Jacques Lacan on Law, London: Cavendish, forthcoming 2012
  
  
• Testifying to Trauma: The Codification of Trauma in Humanitarian Law , London: Cavendish, forthcoming 2010
  
  
• ‘After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects’, co-editor Brett St Louis, New Formations, 65, 2008.
  
  
• Jacques Lacan and Feminist Epistemology, London and New York: Routledge, 2004
  
  
• ‘Out of Conflict:  Change, Peace, Justice’, co-editor Vikki Bell, Special Issue, Social and Legal Studies, 13(3) 2004

Journal articles

• ‘Women, Gender, and Conflict:  Reflecting upon the Gendered Harms of War’, ASPASIA:  International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women's and Gender History, (3) 2009
  
  
• ‘After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects’, co-editor Brett St Louis, New Formations, 65, 2008.
  
  
• ‘The Gender of Transitional Justice: Law, Sexual Violence and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (3): 411-432, 2007
  
  
• ‘The Balance of Terror:  Torture and the War on Terror’, Journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities 3:  155-169, 2007
  
  
• ‘The Spoils of War: Berlin : The Downfall', Economy and Society, 34(3): 495-507, 2005
  
  
• ‘The Trauma of Justice', Social and Legal Studies, 13(3): 329-350, 2004
  
  
• ‘Out of Conflict: Change, Transition and Justice', with Vikki Bell, Social and Legal Studies, 13(3): 299-304, 2004
  
  
• ‘The Promise of Feminist Reflexivities: Developing Donna Haraway's Project for Feminist Science Studies', Hypatia, 19(1): 162-182, 2004
  
  
• ‘The Politics of Kinship: Antigone's Claim', Economy and Society, 31(4): 642-650, 2002
  
  
• ‘Rape as a Crime against Humanity: Trauma, Law and Justice in the ICTY', Journal of Human Rights, 2(4): 507-515, 2003
  
  
• ‘Legal Memories: Sexual Assault, Memory and International Humanitarian Law', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28 (1): 149-178, 2002
  
  
• ‘The Plague of the Subject: Judith Butler's Psychic Life of Power', International Journal of Sexuality and Gender, 6(1/2): 35-48, 2001, refereed. ISSN 15661768
  
  
• ‘The Slide in the Sign: Lacan's Glissement and the Registers of Meaning', Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 4(3): 135-143, 1999
  
  
• ‘The Play of Reason, by Linda Nicholson', The Sociological Review 47(4): 846-849, 1999
  
  

Book chapters

• ‘From Legitimacy to Legality:  The Problem of the Global Legal Form.’ in Chris Thornhill and Samantha Ashenden (eds), Legality and Legitimacy:  Normative and Sociological Approaches, eds., Berlin, Nomos, 2010
  
  
• ‘Jacques Lacan', Palgrave Guide to Continental Political Thought, Terrell Carver and James Martin eds., London: Palgrave, 2006
  
  
• ‘The Plague of the Subject: Subjects, Politics and the Power of Psychic Life', Butler Matters: Judith Butler's Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies Since Gender Trouble, Margaret Breen and Warren Blumenfeldeds., Aldershot, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004
  
  
• ‘Politics, Identities and Research', with Suki Ali, Duncan Branley and Robert James, Researching Society and Culture, Clive Seale ed., London: Sage, 2004 pp. 21-32
  
  
• ‘The Pedagogical is the Political: Reconfiguring Pedagogical Mastery', Pedagogical Desire: Transference, Seduction, and the Question of Authorial Ethics, Jan Jagodzinski ed., London and Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002, pp. 74-89.
  
  
• ‘New Feminist Communities For The Third Wave', The Politics of Community, Michael Strysick ed., Aurora, CO, Davies, 2002, pp. 221-241.
  
  
• ‘Theorizing Possibility: Julia Kristeva and Feminist Epistemology', After the Revolution: On Julia Kristeva, John Lechte and Mary Zournazieds., Sydney: Artspace, 1998, pp. 159-169

Policy-related Publications

• ‘Legacies of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia’, with Sari Wastell, Wenner Gren Foundation