Dr Roxani Krystalli
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Dr Roxani Krystalli is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. The key question animating her work is what sustains life in the face of loss.
Roxani co-leads an international research project on the role of love and care in helping people imagine how to live with loss. Among other questions, the project asks: How might we understand what people lost during war differently if we ask them about what they loved? What does it mean to love a place and what duties flow from that love? How can practices of attention transform into acts of care? The project is carried out in partnership with Dr Philipp Schulz and in collaboration with a team of researchers in Colombia, Germany, Scotland, and Uganda. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation.
Roxani's first book, Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question , was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. Drawing from her in-depth engagement with the peace and justice process in Colombia, Roxani argues that the status of 'victim' can create political possibilities, rather than elide them. Among other honours, the book won the Lee Ann Fujii prize for innovation in teh study of political violence, awarded by the American Political Science Association.
In 2023, the British International Studies Association awarded Roxani the Early Career Excellence in Teaching International Studies Prize. She enjoys teaching classes on the politics of nature and place, qualitative research methods, and love and loss.
Roxani's research has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Scotland's Future Series, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, among others. She co-edits the Routledge Studies in Gender and Global Politics book series. In her own writing within and beyond the academy, she is interested in questions of attention, memory, care, and place.
Roxani holds a PhD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a BA from Harvard University.
Research areas
Dr Krystalli's research, teaching, and supervision interests include:
- love and loss
- the politics of nature and place
- ethics and methods of researching political violence
- narrative and storytelling in the study of politics
- care, beauty, and joy in the shadow of war and peace
PhD supervision
- Louise Courbin
- Kendra Löwer
- Claire Wilson
Selected publications
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Open access
What sustains life? Love and care in the face of loss in Colombia
Krystalli, R. & Olarte-Sierra, M. F., 30 Jul 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Millennium: Journal of International Studies. OnlineFirst, p. 1-23 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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The poetry of ambivalence: a nudge toward tending
Krystalli, R., 18 Sept 2025, Ambivalent activism: working with contradiction, hesitation, and doubt for social change. Emejulu, A., Kustatscher, M. & McGregor, C. (eds.). Bristol: Bristol University Press, p. 172-177 6 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Good victims: the political as a feminist question
Krystalli, R., 7 May 2024, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 255 p. (Oxford studies in gender and international relations)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Narratives and violence: feminist dilemmas, revisited
Krystalli, R., 19 Jan 2026, Handbook on gender and violence. Biddolph, C., Kim, J., Perry, S. & Shepherd, L. J. (eds.). 2nd ed. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, p. 133-145 (International handbooks on gender).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Open access
Taking love and care seriously: an emergent research agenda for remaking worlds in the wake of violence
Krystalli, R. & Schulz, P., 1 Mar 2022, In: International Studies Review. 24, 1, 25 p., viac003.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Teaching and learning reflexivity in the global politics classroom
Krystalli, R., Dec 2023, In: International Political Sociology. 17, 4, 17 p., olad018.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Narrating victimhood: dilemmas and (in)dignities
Krystalli, R., 19 Jan 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: International Feminist Journal of Politics. 23, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Taking the research experience seriously: a framework for reflexive applied research in development
Krystalli, R., Hoffecker, E., Leith, K. & Wilson, K., 22 Sept 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Global Studies Quarterly. 1, 3, 10 p., ksab022.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Being seen like a state: transitional justice bureaucrats and victimhood in Colombia
Krystalli, R., 3 Apr 2023, In: Current Anthropology. 64, 2, p. 128-146 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Of loss and light: teaching in the time of grief
Krystalli, R., 15 Dec 2021, In: Journal of Narrative Politics. 8, 1, p. 41-44 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review