BOOK LAUNCH: Agency and Ownership in Reconciliation by Caitlin Mollica

Join us in person at the Room Q205 in the Q Building or online on Zoom to Launch Caitlin Mollica's book Agency and Ownership in Reconciliation.

Caitlin will begin by talking about her work and we will be joined by Helen Berrents (Griffith) and (USydd) as respondents.

The importance of youth's substantive participation for the realization of inclusive reconciliation practices has rarely been acknowledged. Agency and Ownership in Reconciliation provides a comprehensive, nuanced, and empirical account of the contribution of young people's voices to the success of transitional justice and peacebuilding practices. Caitlin Mollica illustrates the role of political will and agency in the development of transitional justice mechanisms that are substantively inclusive of those traditionally marginalized by post-conflict institutions, most notably youth. In doing so, she highlights the importance of youth to lasting peace and meaningful justice. She does so by looking specifically at how truth and reconciliation commissions from South Africa to the Solomon Islands engage with the voices of youth and the meanings youth self-ascribe to their experiences during truth and reconciliation commission processes. In a field which traditionally prioritizes stories about youth, Agency and Ownership in Reconciliation looks to center stories by youth.

Caitlin Mollica is a lecturer and Assistant Program Convenor for the Business School at the University of Newcastle. Her research interests include youth’s political participation, gender-inclusive justice practices, transitional justice, and human rights. She has published in well regarded journals including, Cooperation & Conflict, Human Rights Quarterly, and Pacific Review. Caitlin’s primary research considers the substantive participation of young people in transitional justice, peacebuilding, and human rights practices. Her sole authored book: Agency & Ownership in Reconciliation: Youth and the Practice of Transitional Justice is published by SUNY Press. Caitlin’s current work examines the relationship between donors and youth in the broader context of the new international mandate on youth inclusive peacebuilding. She is working with international NGO Dag Hammarskjöld foundation to develop a publicly available database that charts available funding programs for youth-led peace work.

Caitlin Biddolph (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender and Global Governance in the School of Social and Political Sciences, at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her doctoral research explored discourses and logics of gender, sexuality, civilisation, and violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Caitlin is currently researching the global governance of transitional justice through queer decolonial perspectives. More broadly, she is interested in queer, feminist, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches to global politics, particularly global governance, international law, and transitional justice. She has recently published articles in International Studies Quarterly (forthcoming), International Feminist Journal of Politics (forthcoming), and Millennium: Journal of International Studies.

Dr Helen Berents currently holds an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship and is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Her work draws on feminist international relations, critical peace studies, and the sociology of youth to explore representations and participation of children and youth in peace and conflict, everyday approaches to peacebuilding, and local-global relations in peace and security governance. Her work has been published in journals including International Political Sociology, International Affairs, and Cooperation & Conflict. Her book, Young People and Everyday Peace was published in 2018.