John Julian Graef
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Email: jjg28
st-andrews.ac.uk
Biography
After four years in the United States Navy, I received two B.A. degrees (Political Science and History) from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2007. In 2008 I completed my MLitt with distinction at the University of St. Andrews in Peace and Conflict Studies; this program involved a field work component which was conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the course of my MLitt, I developed a critical interest in liberal peacebuilding which is the basis of my PhD.
My thesis interrogates the relationship between local agency and the (re)formation of the Liberian justice system. Specifically, I seek to understand the process of building liberal normative capacity in post conflict rural Liberian society and the effects these interventions produce both on the customary and statutory legal systems. Normative capacity building involves raising human rights awareness, conducting legal empowerment education and assisting rural Liberians in navigating the statutory justice system. However, there is also a growing acknowledgement, reflected in justice sector reform strategies, programs and donors, that customary justice must play a role in the Liberian peacebuilding process. My dissertation examines the negotiation process between statutory and customary justice which will ultimately be manifested in a system of justice. Through the lens of local agency, my project hopes to investigate how, why and to what end customary justice is being incorporated into the future of the Liberian justice architecture. Firstly, my field research engages with the grassroots intervention practices undertaken by The Carter Center’s “Access to Justice” mobile Community Legal Adviser program. Secondly, I examine the relevant stakeholders contributing to building the future Liberian justice system. Lastly, I seek to trace the affect of local agency to the centers of policy formation, review and optimization in New York and Washington D.C.
As a research assistant, I coordinated, organized and participated in field work in Monrovia, Liberia in November 2009 for the St. Andrews Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies’ (CPCS) “Tensions and Contradictions of the Liberal Peace in Africa" project. I returned to Liberia twice in 2011 to conduct field research for my thesis with the assistance of the 2010 Russell Trust Award and a CPCS research grant. I am currently interning as a project associate with Oxford’s Centre of the Study of African Economies (CSAE) who are conducting field surveys of The Carter Center’s Mobile Community Legal Advisor Program. Additionally, I worked with Professor Oliver Richmond to establish the Critical Peace and Conflict Studies ECPR Standing Group (information forthcoming). I am also the co-ordinator for the CPCS conflict mapping internship.
Thesis Title
Peacebuilding as Capacity building in Rural Liberia
Supervisor
Professor Oliver P. Richmond
Research Interests
Micro-politics, capacity building, critical peace and conflict studies, resistance, practice led methodologies, African politics, peace and peacebuilding
Conferences
Research Frontiers in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of St. Andrews May 2010 presenting on “Peacebuilding as Capacity Building in Liberia”.
