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Kirsten Campbell

Staff details

Position

Professor

Department

Sociology

Email

k.campbell (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Feminist social theory and socio-legal studies, focussing on sexual violence and international criminal 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’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 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; international law; 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.

Featured publications

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 and Mlinarević, Gorana. 2022. A Feminist Critique of Approaches to International Criminal Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: A Case Study of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Prosecutions Before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In: Indira Rosenthal; Valerie Oosterveld and Susana SáCouto, eds. Gender and International Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 75-98. ISBN 9780198871583

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

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

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. -, -.

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

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