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Welcome to the Winter 2024 edition of the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) newsletter. In this publication, we highlight the research accomplishments of the faculty members, students, and others affiliated with the Centre, both in Canada and internationally. Their efforts support the Centre’s work of expanding our understanding of human rights and restorative justice.
The Centre’s recent collaboration with McGill-Queens University Press has resulted in a book series (“Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice”) which provides opportunities for CHRRJ members and their collaborators to disseminate their research on human rights and restorative justice, both in Canada and abroad. The series’ first publication is Truth Commissions and State Building, a collection of essays edited by Bonny Ibhawoh, Jasper Abembia Avelazuno, and Sylvia Bawa. This volume consists of articles produced at a recent CHRRJ-sponsored conference.
In January 2024, the Centre held a book launch to celebrate the publication of this collection. Two more books are in the series’ pipeline, both of which resulted from CHRRJ-sponsored conferences. These manuscripts and the conferences on which they were based demonstrate the intellectual energy of the Centre’s members and collaborators and their engagement with pressing policy issues. The Centre’s new hybrid speakers’ series (which benefited from the generous support of McMaster University’s Research Centre and Institutes Engagement Fund) provides another forum for researchers to explore issues relating to human rights and restorative justice. Under the auspices of this series, the Centre co-sponsored a talk in October with McMaster University’s new Centre for Research on Community Oriented Entrepreneurs (CRCE). The CRCE’s director (and member of CHRRJ), Dr. Benson Honig, organized a talk by Dr. Arnon Degani titled “Still Processing: The Oslo Peace Process at 30.” The rich and lively discussion that followed this well-attended presentation demonstrates the value of the speakers’ series and indeed the willingness of CHRRJ members to facilitate important discussions about crucial current events.
In the final event of our speaker’s series for 2023-2024, Dr. Michele Johnson joined us for a fascinating conversation about her research. Along with a PhD student from the History Department, Matthew Monrose, I talked to Dr. Johnson about her work on the Caribbean and the African diaspora, her experiences as the director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and Its Diasporas, and her new co-edited book, Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History. Those in attendance appreciated hearing about Dr. Johnson’s work over the years and responded with thoughtful questions.
The faculty members, visiting scholars, and students affiliated with the Centre have accomplished a great deal to be proud of over this academic year, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to recognize their work.
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A Conversation with Dr. Michele Johnson
On 13 February 2024, the Centre (CHRRJ) hosted Dr. Michele Johnson in a profound conversation about her work on African diaspora, Black Canadian, and Caribbean histories. Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. in History from Johns Hopkins University and has taught in the Department of History at York University since July 2002. Amongst other eminent contributions, she has served as the former coordinator of York’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Programme and was the Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas from 2013 to 2018.
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This event was unique, both as the final episode in the Centre’s inaugural, hybrid speaker series that engages experts in diverse disciplines and geographies; and for its format which took the form of an informal conversation. Dr. Johnson was interviewed by Dr. Juanita De Barros, and PhD candidate, Matthew Monrose, both of the History Department at McMaster University.
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Their discussions centered Dr. Johnson’s research on the history of the Caribbean and the African diaspora and her recent co-edited collection, Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History (University of Toronto Press, 2022). The conversation covered a range of topics, including gender and domestic work; oral history, archives, and research methodologies; diversity in the Black and African communities; the rhetoric and reality of Canadian multiculturalism.
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Guest Speaker Dr. Arnon Degani
The Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ), in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Community-Oriented Entrepreneurship (CRCE) at McMaster University, hosted Dr. Arnon Degani as a guest speaker. Dr. Degani is a historian specializing in the history of Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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On November 23rd, 2023, Dr. Degani’s guest speaking appearance entitled “Still Processing: The Oslo Peace Processes at 30" focused on examining the Oslo Accords and contributes to the debate on if and how the settler-colonialism comparative framework benefits the study of Israel and Palestine.
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Dr. Degani’s professional background ranges from teaching courses in Middle East Studies, Jewish studies, and global histories of colonialism to being a member of the University of Pennsylvania's Middle East Studies regional scholars program and a Fellow at Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Center for Contemporary Jewry. His talk was met with interest across the campus.
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Book Launch & Discussion
On January 25, 2024, the Centre (CHRRJ) hosted a hybrid launch event for the first volume of its book series, “Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice.” Co-edited by Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, Dr. Jasper Abembia Avelazuno, and Dr. Sylvia Bawa, this inaugural volume is titled Truth Commissions and State Building and was published by McGill-Queens University Press. The book is a collection of essays written by experts and it permits comparative analysis via the application of varied lenses to examine truth commissions in various African countries.
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Speaking on its objectives and the target audience, Dr. Ibhawoh noted that the book would appeal to academics, policymakers, and practitioners as it engages the ongoing dialogue on truth commissions which act as both a measure for driving transitional and restorative justice, as well as a mechanism for rebuilding post-authoritarian and post-conflict states. Other highlights of the event included a keynote speaker, Dr. David Webster, an expert on truth commissions, and chapter summaries by Abena Asare, Jasper Ayelazuno, Roger Southall, and Sylvia Bawa.
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The book launch also featured a Q&A session that touched on the effectiveness of truth commissions, their importance for sustaining historical consciousness in post-conflict societies, and the tensions between interpreting truth commissions as legal or cultural phenomena, amongst others. With the successful launch of the first book in its series, the CHRRJ reflects the intellectual energy and commitment of the Centre’s members and collaborators.
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Discussion of Truth Commissions and State Building in South Africa
Participedia’s Partners Conference will be held at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 6 & 7, 2024. The conference program includes a discussion of Truth Commissions and State Building, the first book in the centre's series “Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice” with McGill-Queens University Press.
Chapters in this book explore the possibilities and limitations of truth commission processes as democratic innovations - participatory, deliberative processes that can have transformative impacts on post-conflict and post-authoritarian societies. The chapters draw on data from the Global Truth and Reconciliation Commission Collection of Participedia, which analyzes Truth Commissions as innovative deliberative and dialogic processes and the Truth Commissions Report Database of the Confronting Atrocity Project, which is housed in the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice.
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Visiting Scholar
Dr. Lin Sun, who has been a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) for the past year, returned to her University in China in February.
Dr. Sun is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Gender Studies at the Center for American Studies, School of English Studies, Shanghai International Studies University, China, and was a visiting scholar at the Centre from Feb. 2023 to Feb. 2024. Her research and teaching focus on African American literature, motherhood studies, Black feminism, and intersectionality. She has just completed her research on “Identity Politics of American Black Motherhood” under the supervision of Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh. Her recent work has appeared in The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities (2023).
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Visiting PhD Student
Yeison Mauricio Cardenas Reyes is visiting McMaster to develop research on peace and pedagogy.
Cardenas Reyes is a Colombian doctoral student at l’Université Grenoble Alpes in France, where he is working on peace pedagogies through language instruction. His research is interested in designing a system for teaching foreign languages (English and French) as a key pillar in providing training for teachers in rural, post-conflict areas. Through his project, Mauricio posits that these language initiatives are key components of the larger principles of peace education. He will be at McMaster University, working with colleagues in the Department of Global Peace and Justice Studies, the Department of History, and the CHRRJ, from March to July 2024.
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2024
 Book Launch & Discussion “ Truth Commissions and State Building”
2023 / 24 CHRRJ Speaker Series
A Conversation with Dr. Michele Johnson
Dr. Arnon Degani, “Still Processing: The Oslo Peace Processes at 30"
Dr. Sascha Auerbach, “‘To Go and Look for Law’: Late-stage Slavery and Encounters with the Colonial State in the British Empire, 1823-1831” 2023
Colloquium on Narratives of Trauma and Memory: The Legacies of the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission (The Oputa Panel) in Nigeria and National Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Ghana Keynote Addresses
2022
Truth Commissions: Issues of Access and Ownership Conference
 Day 1 Keynote Address: Verne Harris, "Violation of a Truth Commission"
Day 2 Keynote Address: Veronica Torras and Celina Flores, "Truth Commission Archives"
2021
Narrating Transitional Justice: History, Memory, Poetics and Politics Conference
Day 1 Keynote Address: Juan Gabriel Vásquez, “The Invention of Past Truths”
Day 2 Keynote Address: Zakes Mda, “A Storage Place of Memory”
Book Launch and Discussion, "The Colombian Peace Agreement: A Multidisciplinary Assessment"
Panel, "Beyond the Penal and the Carceral: Alternatives to criminalization to address social need"
Introducing Participedia Project
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