Dr. Cheryl Lawther is a Reader in the School of Law and a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. She is the former 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.

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.

Dr. Lawther holds a PhD (Law), MSSc Criminology (with distinction) and BA Hons Politics (First Class Honours) all from Queen's University Belfast. She has also been awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

In addition to her scholarly committments, Cheryl is actively engaged with a number of victim focused and human rights organisations in civil society. Specifically, she is a:

 - Member of the Victims' Payments Board;

 - Member of the Victims' Commissioners Advisory Panel;

 - Trustee of the Human Rights Trust;

 - Former Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Committee on the Administration of Justice.

Dr. Lawther's work has garnered significant success and scholarly recognition. Key achievements include:

 - British Academy Mid Career Fellowship (2022-2023).

 - Fulbright Irish Scholar Award (2021, School of Law UC Berkeley).

 - Socio-Legal Studies Association Article Prize. Shortlisted for: 'The Truth about Loyalty: Emotions, Ex-Combatants and Transitioning from the Past', International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2017, 11, 3:484-503.

 - 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.  Awarded for: “Securing’ the Past: Policing and the Contest over Truth in Northern Ireland’, British Journal of Criminology, 2010, 50, 3: 455-473.

Leadership and Administrative Roles

Chair of School of Law Research Ethics Committee (2023 - ).

Theme lead for Transitional Justice Research Cluster (2023 - ).

Co-lead for QUB - Boston College Partnership (2023 - ).

Member of North America Strategy Group (2023 - ).

External examiner, MPhil Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, Trinity College Dublin (2023 - ).

Director of the Human Rights Centre, QUB (2020 - 2022).

Theme lead for Human Rights and Public Law Research Cluster (2020 - 2022).

Programme Director, LLM International Human Rights Law (2018-2021).

Programme Director, LLM Criminology and Criminal Justice (2018-2021).

Programme Director, LLM Human Rights and Criminal Justice (2018-2019).

Current Teaching

Constitutional Law in Context (PGT, MLaw, Module Convenor)

Transitional Justice (PGT, LLM, Module Convenor)

Punishment, Justice and Legacy (PGT, LLM)

Criminology Theory and Practice (UG, LLB)

Previous Teaching

Constitutional Law in Context (UG, LLB, Module Convenor)

Criminal Law (UG, LLB)

Theoretical Criminology (PGT, LLM, Module Convenor)