![Maja Davidovic](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/2270?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Maja Davidovic
(she/her)
Lecturer in International Relations
- DavidovicM@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29225 12343
- Law Building, Room 1.17, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I joined Cardiff University in 2021 as Lecturer in International Relations, with research expertise in transitional justice, international law, human rights, norms and knowledge production.
I completed my PhD in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University in 2022, where I also worked as a tutor. I also hold an MA in Human Rights from Central European University.
My doctoral research, for which I was awarded the Open Society Civil Society Scholar Award, investigated prevention of conflict repetition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. My articles and essays are published or forthcoming in, among others, the International Studies Review, International Studies Quarterly, International Journal of Transitional Justice and Conflict, Security and Development.
Publication
2024
- Castrillón-Guerrero, L., Rudling, A. and Davidovic, M. 2024. Feminist constellations: Conversations about epistemic harm, gender-based violence, and (trying to hold on to) joy in academia. International Feminist Journal of Politics 26(1), pp. 173-193. (10.1080/14616742.2023.2294328)
2023
- Davidovic, M. and Turner, C. 2023. What counts as transitional justice scholarship? Citational recognition and disciplinary hierarchies in theory and practice. International Studies Quarterly 67(4), article number: sqad091. (10.1093/isq/sqad091)
- Carvajalino, J. and Davidovic, M. 2023. Escaping or reinforcing hierarchies? Norm relations in transitional justice. International Studies Review 25(3), article number: viad022. (10.1093/isr/viad022)
- Turner, C. and Davidovic, M. 2023. Transitional justice: An interdisciplinary landscape?. In: Lawther, C. and Moffett, L. eds. Research Handbook on Transitional Justice. 2nd edition. Research Handbooks in International Law Cheltenham and Camberley: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 27-44.
2022
- Davidovic, M. 2022. The uses of transitional justice as a field. In: Evans, M. ed. Beyond Transitional Justice Transformative Justice and the State of the Field (or non-field). Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 13-23.
2021
- Davidovic, M. 2021. The law of 'never again': Transitional justice and the transformation of the norm of non-recurrence. International Journal of Transitional Justice 15(2), pp. 386-406. (10.1093/ijtj/ijab011)
Articles
- Castrillón-Guerrero, L., Rudling, A. and Davidovic, M. 2024. Feminist constellations: Conversations about epistemic harm, gender-based violence, and (trying to hold on to) joy in academia. International Feminist Journal of Politics 26(1), pp. 173-193. (10.1080/14616742.2023.2294328)
- Davidovic, M. and Turner, C. 2023. What counts as transitional justice scholarship? Citational recognition and disciplinary hierarchies in theory and practice. International Studies Quarterly 67(4), article number: sqad091. (10.1093/isq/sqad091)
- Carvajalino, J. and Davidovic, M. 2023. Escaping or reinforcing hierarchies? Norm relations in transitional justice. International Studies Review 25(3), article number: viad022. (10.1093/isr/viad022)
- Davidovic, M. 2021. The law of 'never again': Transitional justice and the transformation of the norm of non-recurrence. International Journal of Transitional Justice 15(2), pp. 386-406. (10.1093/ijtj/ijab011)
Book sections
- Turner, C. and Davidovic, M. 2023. Transitional justice: An interdisciplinary landscape?. In: Lawther, C. and Moffett, L. eds. Research Handbook on Transitional Justice. 2nd edition. Research Handbooks in International Law Cheltenham and Camberley: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 27-44.
- Davidovic, M. 2022. The uses of transitional justice as a field. In: Evans, M. ed. Beyond Transitional Justice Transformative Justice and the State of the Field (or non-field). Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 13-23.
Research
I am currently working on two main projects in the areas of transitional justice, ontological security and the politics of memory.
Never Again: Governing the Past to Prevent Future Conflicts
My first monograph, Never Again explores the birth, development, and practice of the international norm of guaranteeing non-repetition of conflict and mass human rights violations. It does so through the lens of transitional justice, one of the best-known global projects of the 21st century guiding post-conflict states through ‘dealing’ with their legacies of violence. The book will be an insightful read for those with interests in international and national, global and local connections and disconnections as it investigates how international law and policies take different shapes in country-specific contexts. To do this effectively, I draw on my extensive field research in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Never Again tells a story about international and local efforts to prevent renewed conflict, from a mere moral promise, through a package of measures states transitioning from conflict are expected to implement, to everyday practices of prevention of renewed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The manuscript is currently in the early stages of development.
What Makes and Breaks Revisionist States? Historical Revisionism, Ontological Security and Agency
While historical revisionism is commonly used to justify offensive foreign policies and mobilise war support, little scholarly attention is paid to its scope and importance in the Western Balkans, a region that continues to test Europe's security assurances. To advance the knowledge on prevention of conflict repetition and ontological security, this project investigates how historical revisionism, particularly atrocity crimes denial, emerges, develops and diminishes in states' foreign policies during post-conflict reckoning with the past.
Underpinned by Critical Security Studies, the project aims to a) map out the use of historical revisionism by revisionist governments in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, b) establish the factors influencing revisionist behaviour and c) understand the role of 'ordinary' people in triggering, challenging and correcting such behaviour. The project employs document analysis, focus groups and interviews to trace the external/internal dynamics influencing the development and decline of revisionist states and carries significant policy-oriented implications.
This is a British Academy funded sponsored project [May 2023 - January 2025].
Teaching
2023/2024
PL9220 Gender, Sex and Death in Global Politics
PL9331 War and Society
PL9197 Introduction to Globalisation
Past modules
PL9228 International Security - Concepts and Issues
PL9299 International Law in a Changing World
PL9224 Global Governance