Introduction

The 'Historical Memory and Transformative Justice' chair led by Prof. Nicole L. Immler is dedicated to unraveling the complexities of recognition and repair for (historical) injustices. This chair brings the expertise of History, Memory Studies and Transitional Justice together, based upon the idea that when it comes to justice the past has to be part of an intergenerational conversation – a mechanism not just operating within families but also society and its institutions. 

In the past decade, global calls for recognition of victims from colonial violence, failed peace missions, (sexual) abuse, and ecocide have intensified. The chair broadens the classical approach of transitional justice to historical injustice by including the social, economic, cultural and ecological dimensions of large-scale human rights violations; covering typical and atypical cases (currently the Netherlands, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bosnia, Syria).

The chair group is dedicated to the emerging field of Transformative Justice, characterized by a commitment to empirical approaches, exploring the experiences of victimzed groups with wrong-doing institutions, aiming to identify the 'root causes' of structural and systemic violence, and the ways they can be addresses in recognition and repair procedures. From the interaction of system and living world, we try to understand when 'repair' might work. Under which conditions do wrongdoers and victimized develop a new relationships towards each other? Under which conditions do recognition and justice procedures allow transformation? How to find the right balance between past and future? 

Interdisciplinary Approaches 

Our work is situated at the intersection of History, Anthropology, Memory Studies, Transitional Justice, Social and Political Theory, Narratology, Oral History, Gender and Postcolonial Studies. We integrate specifically dialogical approaches characteristic for Humanistic Studies that center stage the human and lived experiences, questions of well-being and meaning-making as well as the institutional perspective on humanising society. 

Our ambition is to translate our synthesized knowledge into practice through teachings, trainings and toolkits; aiming for institutions to enhance their recognition and repair practices and to broaden academic and public debate on questions of history, memory and justice.

View staff members of this group
View Research projects