Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Transitional Justice; Truth recovery and dealing with the past; Victims; Ex-Combatants; Reparations; Emotions; Dark tourism/use of atrocity sites.
Research Statement
Dr. Cheryl Lawther is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and a Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. She is also the Director of the Human Rights Centre at Queen's University Belfast. Situated within the field of transitional justice, Cheryl's research interests focus on truth recovery and dealing with the past, victims, ex-combatants, reparations and the use of atrocity sites.
Cheryl is currently leading and working on a number of UKRI funded research projects. In late 2015 she was awarded an AHRC Early Career Research Grant for a project on 'Voice, Agency and Blame: Victimhood and the Imagined Community in Northern Ireland' (with K. McEvoy, £250,000). Full details on the project and associated publications can be found on the project website - victimsandthepast.org In November 2016, Cheryl became a Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded project 'Reparations, Resonsibilites and Victimhood in Transitional Societies' (with L. Moffett and K. McEvoy, £655,198). The project website can be accessed here - reparations.qub.ac.uk. Finally, Dr. Lawther is leading a Department for Education - Global Challenges Research Fund pilot project on representations of victimhood at dark tourist sites, with a specific focus on Cambodia.
In addition to these collaborative projects, Cheryl has had significant success in securiing research fellowships. These include a Fulbright Irish Scholar Award (2020) (based at the School of Law, UC Berkeley) and a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2022-2023). This latter award will facilitate the writing of a monograph on the construction and reproduction of victimhood in transitional justice, under contract with Oxford University Press.
Her research has garnered a number of awards. Her article “Securing’ the Past: Policing and the Contest over Truth in Northern Ireland’, British Journal of Criminology, 2010, 50, 3: 455-473 was awarded the Brian Williams Article Prize by the British Society of Criminology in July 2011. This award is made in recognition of the best sole authored journal article by a ‘new’ scholar in the previous year. A subsequent article - 'The Truth about Loyalty: Emotions, Ex-Combatants and Transitioning from the Past', International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2017, 11, 3:484-503 was shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association Article Prize.
Cheryl's key publications include the monograph Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past (Routledge), co-edited (with L. Moffett and D. Jacobs) Research Handbook on Transitional Justice (co-edited with L. Moffett and D. Jacobs) (Edward Elgar) and journal articles in, amongst others, Social and Legal Studies, the International Journal of Transitional Justice, British Journal of Criminology, Journal of Human Rights in Practice, International Journal of Human Rights Practice, International Review of Victimology, Journal of Genocide Research and Policing and Society.
In addition to her scholarly committments, Cheryl is a trustee of the Human Rights Trust and is the former Vice Chair of the Committee on the Administration of Justice.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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Network
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R1120LAW: ESRC Leading Impact Fund
Moffett, L., Lawther, C. & McEvoy, K.
28/10/2019 → …
Project: Research
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R1737LAW: Reparations, Responsibility and Victimhood in Transitional Societies
Moffett, L., Lawther, C. & McEvoy, K.
08/05/2017 → …
Project: Research
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R3968SES: Whose Voices are Heard? Victimhood and Dark Tourism in Cambodia
Lawther, C., Dempster, L. & Killean, R.
25/09/2017 → 31/03/2018
Project: Research
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R1592SSP: Voice, Agency and Blame: Victimhood and the Imagined Community in Northern Ireland.
25/01/2016 → 30/09/2018
Project: Research
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Belfast Guidelines on Reparations in Post-Conflict Societies
Moffett, L., Vicente, A., Sandoval, C., Hearty, K., Lawther, C., McEvoy, K., Gallen, J. & Dixon, P., 31 Aug 2022, 15 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
Open AccessFile18 Downloads (Pure) -
Changing the Script: Non-State Armed Groups, Restorative Justice and Reparations
McEvoy, K., Lawther, C. & Moffett, L., 28 Mar 2022, (Early online date) In: Journal of Human Rights Practice.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Civil Society Organisations and Donors Engagement on Reparations
Moffett, L., Hearty, K., Vicente, A., Dixon, P., Lawther, C., Gallen, J. & Sandoval, C., 31 Aug 2022, 92 p.Research output: Book/Report › Other report
Open AccessFile16 Downloads (Pure) -
Engaging Non-State Armed Groups on Reparations
Moffett, L., Hearty, K., Lawther, C. & McEvoy, K., 31 Aug 2022, 72 p.Research output: Book/Report › Other report
Open AccessFile17 Downloads (Pure) -
Heroes and Hierarchies: The Celebration and Censure of Victimhood in Transitional Justice
Lawther, C., 22 Feb 2022, In: The International Journal of Human Rights. 26, 3, p. 518-540Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile75 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship
Lawther, Cheryl (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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British Society of Criminology Brian Williams Article Prize
Lawther, Cheryl (Recipient), 05 Jul 2011
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Fulbright Irish Scholar Award.
Lawther, Cheryl (Recipient), 2020
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Socio Legal Studies Article Prize, shortlisted
Lawther, Cheryl (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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Boston College
Cheryl Lawther (Visiting researcher)
2023Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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Trauma-informed Legal Practice: Better Outcomes for Clients, a Better Day's Work for Solicitors and Barristers.
Cheryl Lawther (Organiser)
10 Nov 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Presented Paper: Restoring, Repairing and Re-Humanising Ex-Combatants, World Society of Victimology Symposium.
Cheryl Lawther (Speaker)
05 Jun 2022 → 09 Jun 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Invited Speaker: 'Beyond Innocence and Guilt: Constructing Victimhood in Transitional Justice', Historical Dialogues, Justice and Memory Network Seminar Series.
Cheryl Lawther (Invited speaker)
10 May 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Presented Paper: 'Victims and Transitional Justice', International Studies Association Annual Convention.
Cheryl Lawther (Speaker)
28 Mar 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
Press / Media
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Expert contributor, 'Murder in the Badlands', BBC Documentary.
25/03/2021
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Report Launch: The Apparatus of Impunity?
30/01/2015
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities