International Criminal Law; Sexual & Gender-Based Violence; International and Comparative Criminal Evidence, Storytelling & Witness Experiences, Transitional Justice, Feminist Perspectives on International Law

Dr Brunger is Lecturer in Human Rights Law and Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. She joined the School of Law in July 2016, having previously taught at the University of Leicester, University College Dublin and the University of Ulster. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (University of Cambridge), Lucy Cavendish College (University of Cambridge) and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London). She is alumni of the prestigious Salzburg Law Summer School on International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law, the UN International Law Commission Seminar and the EIUC School of Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy.  

Dr Brunger’s primary research and supervision interests are the fields of international criminal law, sexual and gender-based violence, international and comparative criminal evidence, feminist perspectives and transitional justice. Dr Brunger’s work is inherently socio-legal and examines the law in the context of broader conflict and post-conflict dynamics from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. Dr Brunger is currently completing her book on the relationship between the International Criminal Court and UN Security Council (forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2019) which explores the critical intersections between global politics and international criminal justice.

Her research has been used to impact and inform policy and practice in the areas of human rights and international criminal justice. Her co-authored paper ‘Witness Preparation in the ICC: An Opportunity for Principled Pragmatism’ was shortlisted for the SLSA Article Prize (2016) and been cited by the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the case of The Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé. Dr Brunger’s Policy Brief for the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa) examining “Investigations and Prosecutions of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence by the International Criminal Court” has been widely used to inform the practice of a range of international organizations and NGOs responding to SGBV in conflict and post-conflict countries.

Dr Brunger is Co-Coordinator for the Interest Group on Feminism and International Law of the European Society of International Law. She is also an expert member on the AHRC-Funded UN Gender Network and the  AHRC-Funded Working Group on a feminist approach to Peace. Also, she is a member of the International Feminist Judgments Project which brings together leading feminist scholars to rewrite significant judgments in public international law. She is a co-author of the re-written first judgment of the International Criminal Court in the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (forthcoming Hart/Bloomsbury 2018).

Dr Brunger is the founder and co-director of the QUB Gender Network, an interdisciplinary research network of staff and PG students that provide expertise to strategically shape and impact discourse and policy around gender issues in law and society. She developed an innovative visual advocacy toolkit to combat rape myths and sexual violence and a culture of victim-blaming for local civil society and has curated several research exhibitions using the visual arts.

Throughout her career, she has worked with a broad range of stakeholders, including international organizations, national governments, and civil society actors, and is regularly invited to present her work or provide expertise to those audiences.  

PhD SUPERVISION

Dr Brunger is willing to supervise students working on topics related to International Criminal Law; Sexual & Gender-Based Violence; International and Comparative Criminal Evidence, Storytelling & Witness Experiences, Transitional Justice, Feminist Perspectives on International Law.

TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATION

Dr Brunger teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses including; Public International Law, Gender, Justice and Society, Human Rights in Practice, and Criminal Justice Processes. She is a member of the School's Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Committee and drafted the School of Law’s Gender Principles. Dr Brunger is also Undergraduate Admissions Director (Home/EU) and Coordinator for UG Peer Mentoring.

You can keep up-to-date with her research activities on Twitter