Kirsten Campbell
Staff details
Kirsten’s research interests include feminist social theory, sociology of law, feminist and socio-legal methodology, with a focus upon concepts and practices of social justice. Kirsten’s current research investigates conflict-related sexual violence in international criminal law and transitional justice. She has worked on policy and practice in this area with NGOs, governments, and the UN. Her recent book, The Justice of Humans: Subject, Society, and Sexual Violence in International Criminal Justice draws on her European Research Council projects, The Gender of Justice, and TRANSFORM. Kirsten is a member of the Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict international research group.
Kirsten co-directs the Sociology Unit for Global Justice and convenes the Gender of Justice research group. She has been a visiting scholar at Sciences Po, Lund University, and UC Berkeley. Kirsten previously taught sociology at Brunel University, and practised as a commercial litigation lawyer.
Academic qualifications
- Ph.D. (LSE, Law) 2012
- D. Phil. (Oxon, Modern Languages) 1999
- B. Litt. (Melb.) 1995
- B.A. (Hons) (Macq.) 1994
- LL.B. (Hons)/B.A. (Melb.) 1992
- Barrister and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia 1994
Teaching and Supervision
Kirsten’s teaching specialisations are social theory (including feminist and psychoanalytic theory); sociology of gender, law, and conflict; and feminist and socio-legal methodology.
Kirsten welcomes doctoral students working on these topics.
Kirsten was awarded the Peake Teaching award for teaching excellence, and was previously the Director of Undergraduate Programmes.
- Convenor, Crime, Control and the State, SO51007C (UG)
- Convenor, Philosophy and Methodology of Social Science, SO52003A (UG)
- Convenor, Law, Identity and Ethics, SO53044A (UG)
- Convenor, Politics, Identity and the Law, SO71068A (MA)
Research interests
Kirsten’s interdisciplinary research interests include feminist social theory, sociology of law and socio-legal studies, focusing on concepts and practices of social justice. She has an ongoing concern with feminist and socio-legal methodologies. Kirsten's current research focuses on international criminal law, transitional justice, and conflict-related sexual violence. Kirsten has worked on policy and practice in the area of gender and international criminal law for over two decades.
Kirsten recently completed a major socio-legal study of forms of international justice, which is the subject of The Justice of Humans: Subject, Society, and Sexual Violence in International Criminal Justice. Kirsten has published widely in this area, including on gender and international criminal law, conflict-related sexual violence research, and feminist approaches to transitional justice. Kirsten is a steering committee member of the Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict international research group, which recently published the major interdisciplinary collection, In Plain Sight.
Kirsten’s research draws on her projects, ‘The Gender of Justice’ and ‘TRANSFORM’, which were funded by the European Research Council. These projects studied the prosecution of sexual violence in armed conflict through case studies of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian courts. This work built on her previous ESRC-funded study of shifts in the legal regulation of armed conflict, ‘Regulating Armed Conflict’.
Kirsten’s current research builds on her earlier work on feminist social theory, focusing on feminist knowledge production and transformations of gendered subjects and social relations. She explored this question in Jacques Lacan and Feminist Epistemology, as well as numerous other publications on the formation of gendered subjects, feminist psychoanalytic social theory, and feminist theories of knowledge.
Publications and research outputs
Book
Campbell, Kirsten. 2022. The Justice of Humans: Subject, Society and Sexual Violence in International Criminal Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108497084
Campbell, Kirsten. 2004. Jacques Lacan and Feminist Epistemology. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-30087-2
Edited Book
Zipfel, Gaby; Campbell, Kirsten and Mühlhäuser, Regina, eds. 2019. In Plain Sight: Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict. New Delhi: Zubaan. ISBN 9789385932816
Edited Journal
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett, eds. 2008. After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Politics, New Formations, 65.
Campbell, Kirsten and Bell, Vikki, eds. 2004. Out of Conflict: Peace, Change and Justice, Social and legal studies, 13(3). 0964-6639
Book Section
Campbell, Kirsten. 2022. On Violence as a Feminist Problem. In: Zilka Spahić Šiljak; Jasna Kovačević and Jasmina Husanović, eds. Uprkos strahu i tišini: univerziteti protiv rodno zasnovanog nasilja. Sarajevo: University of Sarajevo/TPO Foundation, pp. 31-40. ISBN 9789958600845
Campbell, Kirsten. 2019. The Gender of Justice? Current Problems and New Directions in the Field of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict. In: Gaby Zipfel; Regina Mühlhäuser and Kirsten Campbell, eds. In Plain Sight: Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict. New Delhi: Zubaan, pp. 230-256. ISBN 9789385932816
Campbell, Kirsten. 2018. The making of international criminal justice: towards a sociology of the ‘legal field’. In: Mikkel Jarle Christensen and Ron Levi, eds. International Practices of Criminal Justice. Routledge. ISBN 9781138688377
Campbell, Kirsten. 2017. Ethical Challenges: Researching War Crimes. In: Malcolm Cowburn; Loraine Gelsthorpe and Azrini Wahidin, eds. Research Ethics in Criminology: Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 150-165. ISBN 9781138803695
Campbell, Kirsten. 2015. Feminism and Lacanian Psychoanalysis. In: Samo Tomšič and Andreja Zevnik, eds. Jacques Lacan: Between Psychoanalysis and Politics. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 234-253. ISBN 978-0-415-72433-3
Campbell, Kirsten. 2014. What Do Women Want? Feminist Epistemology and Psychoanalysis. In: Mary Evans; Clare Hemmings; Marsha Henry; Hazel Johnstone; Sumi Madhok; Ania Plomien and Sadie Wearing, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Feminist Theory. Los Angeles/London: Sage, pp. 93-113. ISBN 9781446252413
Campbell, Kirsten. 2014. Testimonial Modes: Witnessing, Evidence, and Testimony before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In: Antony Rowland and Jane Kilby, eds. The Future of Testimony: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Witnessing. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 83-109. ISBN 9780415854450
Campbell, Kirsten. 2010. From Legitimacy to Legality: The Problem of the Global Legal Form. In: C.J Thornhill and S. Ashenden, eds. Legality and Legitimacy: Normative and Sociological Approaches. Berlin: Nomos, pp. 255-275. ISBN 9783832953546
Campbell, Kirsten. 2005. Jacques Lacan. In: T. Carver and J. Martin, eds. Continental Political Thought. London: Palgrave. ISBN 9781403903686
Campbell, Kirsten. 2004. The plague of the subject: subjects, politics, and the power of psychic life. In: M Breen and W Blumenfeld, eds. Butler Matters: Judith Butler’s impact since Gender Trouble. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754638858
Campbell, Kirsten; Ali, S.; Branley, D. and James, R.. 2004. Politics, Identities and Research. In: C Seale, ed. Researching Society and Culture. London: Sage, pp. 21-32. ISBN 9780761941972
Campbell, Kirsten. 2002. The Pedagogical is the Political. In: J Jagodzinski, ed. Pedagogical Desire: Transference, Seduction, and the Question of Authorial Ethics. Westport, London: Bergin & Garvey, pp. 74-89. ISBN 9780897897655
Campbell, Kirsten. 2002. New Feminist Communities. In: M Strysick, ed. Politics of Community. CO: Aurora, pp. 221-41. ISBN 9781888570632
Campbell, Kirsten. 1998. Theorizing Possibility: Julia Kristeva and Feminist Epistemology. In: John Lechte and M Zoumazi, eds. After the Revolution: On Julia Kristeva. Sydney: Artspace, pp. 159-169. ISBN 9781876017378
Article
Campbell, Kirsten. 2022. Globalni pravni oblik međunarodnog kaznenog prava i pitanje seksualnog nasilja povezanog sa sukobima. Treća, 15(1), pp. 11-28. ISSN 1331-7237
Campbell, Kirsten; Demir, Elma and O’Reilly, Maria. 2019. Understanding Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the ‘Everyday’ Experience of Conflict Through Witness Testimonies. Cooperation and Conflict, 54(2), pp. 254-277. ISSN 0010-8367
Campbell, Kirsten. 2018. Producing Knowledge in the Field of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Research: Objects, Methods, Politics, and Gender Justice Methodology. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 25(4), pp. 469-495. ISSN 1072-4745
Campbell, Kirsten. 2018. Building National and Regional Accountability for Conflict Related Sexual Violence: From Prosecutions in the Former Yugoslavia to the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights. International Human Rights Law Review, 7(2), pp. 201-224. ISSN 2213-1027
Campbell, Kirsten. 2017. Testemunhar o trauma: das formas legais às formas transformadoras no testemunho sobre a violência sexual em tempo de guerra na ex-Jugoslávia/ Testifying to Trauma: Witnessing Conflict before the Law. e-cadernos ces(25), ISSN 1647-0737
Campbell, Kirsten. 2016. Gender Justice Beyond the Tribunals. American Journal of International Law Unbound, 110, pp. 227-233. ISSN 0002-9300
Campbell, Kirsten. 2014. Reassembling International Justice: The Making of ‘the Social’ in International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice. International Journal of Transitional Justice, 8(1), pp. 53-74. ISSN 1752-7716
Campbell, Kirsten. 2013. The City of Law. International Journal of Law in Context, 9(2), pp. 192-212. ISSN 1744-5523
Campbell, Kirsten. 2013. The Laws of Memory: The ICTY, the Archive, and Transitional Justice. Social and Legal Studies, 22(2), pp. 247-269. ISSN 0964-6639
Campbell, Kirsten. 2013. The Making of Global Legal Culture and International Criminal Law. Leiden Journal of International Law, 26(1), pp. 155-172. ISSN 0922-1565
Campbell, Kirsten. 2012. Victims and Perpetrators of International Crimes: The Problem of the 'Legal Person'. Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, 2(2), pp. 325-351. ISSN 1878-1373
Campbell, Kirsten. 2009. 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, pp. 213-217.
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett. 2008. After '68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects. New Formations, 65, pp. 7-18.
Campbell, Kirsten. 2007. The Gender of Transitional Justice: Law, Sexual Violence and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The International Journal of Transitional Justice, 1(3), pp. 411-432. ISSN 1752-7716
Campbell, Kirsten. 2007. The Balance of Terror: Torture, Terrorism, and Security. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 3(1), pp. 155-169. ISSN 17439752
Campbell, Kirsten. 2005. The Spoils of War. Economy and Society, pp. 495-507. ISSN 0308-5147
Campbell, Kirsten. 2004. The Promise of Feminist Reflexivities: Developing Donna Haraway's Project for Feminist Science Studies. Hypatia A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 19(1), pp. 162-182. ISSN 15272001
Campbell, Kirsten. 2004. The Trauma of Justice: Sexual Violence, Crimes against Humanity and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Social & Legal Studies, 13(3), pp. 329-350. ISSN 09646639
Campbell, Kirsten and Bell, Vikki. 2004. Out of Conflict: Peace, Change and Justice. Social and Legal Studies, 13(3), pp. 299-304. ISSN 0964-6639
Campbell, Kirsten. 2003. Rape as a Crime against Humanity: Trauma and Justice in the ICTY. Journal of Human Rights, 2(4), pp. 507-515. ISSN 1475-4835
Campbell, Kirsten. 2002. The Politics of Kinship: Antigone’s Claim. Economy and Society, 31(4), pp. 642-650. ISSN 0308-5147
Campbell, Kirsten. 2002. Legal Memories: Sexual Assault, Memory, and International Humanitarian Law. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(1), pp. 149-176. ISSN 00979740
Campbell, Kirsten. 2001. The Plague of the Subject: Psychoanalysis and Judith Butler’s Psychic Life of Power. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 6(1-2), pp. 35-48. ISSN 1566-1768
Campbell, Kirsten. 1999. The slide in the sign; Lacan's glissement and the registers of meaning. Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 4(3), pp. 135-143. ISSN 0969-725X
Professional Activity
UNSPECIFIED. 2021. Amicus Curiae on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes, The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen, International Criminal Court.
Bunch, C; Campbell, Kirsten; Mlinarevic, G; Otto, D; Perovic, L; Rakic Vodinelic, V and Terselic, V. 2015. Preliminary Decision, Judicial Council of the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia.
Report
Bode, Malin; Boesten, Jelke; Buss, Doris; Campbell, Kirsten; Hauser, Monika; Manjoo, Rashida; Mischkowski, Gabriela; Mlinarević, Gorana; Mühlhäuser, Regina; Studzinsky, Silke and Žarkov, Dubravka. 2021. Response to the Draft of the ‘Global Code of Conduct for Investigating and Documenting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence’. Discussion Paper.
Campbell, Kirsten and Women's Interational League for Peace and Freedom, -. 2015. Joint Evidence Submission, with Womens’ International League for Peace and Freedom, House of Lords Select Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Other. -, -.
Campbell, Kirsten. 2015. Written and Oral Expert Evidence (invited), House of Lords Select Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Other. -, -.
Campbell, Kirsten and Wastell, Sari. 2008. Legacies of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Technical Report. Wenner Gren Foundation.
Further profile content
Featured publications
Professional projects
The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen, International Criminal Court, Amicus Curiae on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes, 2022
Global Code of Conduct for Gathering and Using Information about Systematic and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (The Murad Code): Academic Consultant, 2019-2020; Discussion Paper, Response to the Draft of the ‘Global Code of Conduct for Investigating and Documenting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence’, with Bode, Malin; Boesten, Jelke; Buss, Doris; Hauser, Monika; Manjoo, Rashida; Mischkowski, Gabriela; Mlinarević, Gorana; Mühlhäuser, Regina; Studzinsky, Silke and Žarkov, Dubravka. 2021.
Women's Court: A Feminist Approach to Justice: Member, Judicial Council, Women’s Court, 2015; Preliminary Decision, Judicial Council, Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia, with Bunch, Charlotte; Mlinarevic, Gorana; Otto, Dianne; Perovic, Latinka; Rakic Vodinelic, Vesna and Terselic, Vesna, 2015.
House of Lords Select Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict: Written and Oral Expert Evidence (invited), 2015; Joint Evidence Submission, with Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 2015
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Research projects
2013-2016:
The Gender of Justice: The Prosecution of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict
Principal investigator, European Research Council
2017-2019:
TRANSFORM: Transforming Gender Justice for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Principal investigator, European Research Council
2009-2013:
Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts: Transitional Justice and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts
Senior researcher, European Research Council, principal investigator, Dr Sari Wastell
2006-2007:
Regulating Armed Conflict: From the Laws of War to Humanitarian Law
Principal investigator, Economic and Social Research Council
2005-2008:
The Codification of Trauma in Humanitarian Law
International Collaborative Research Grant, project co-director and researcher, Goldsmiths College and Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Wenner Gren Foundation
2006-2006:
Law After Eichmann
Project co-director, Hanadiv Foundation, Slovenia
