Academic Staff: Janine N Clark

Dr Janine Natalya Clark, LLB (Bristol), MA (Leeds), PhD (Nottingham)

Lecturer

Telephone: +44(0)114 222 1709
Fax: +44(0)114 222 1717
Room: G.60 Elmfield
Feedback and Consultation hours: Mondays 10.00-11.00 and Wednesdays 10.00-11.00

Email: janine.clark@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Dr Clark graduated from the University of Bristol in 1999 with First Class Honours in Law and French. She went on to complete an MA in International Studies at the University of Leeds and was awarded her PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2006. After completing her doctorate, she spent three years in the International Politics Department at Aberystwyth University as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust respectively). Before joining the Politics Department at Sheffield in July 2011, she taught at the Queen’s University of Belfast and at the University of York (in the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit).

Dr Clark is a specialist on the former Yugoslavia and makes regular visits to the area. Her research interests include post-conflict societies (particularly in the Balkans and the African Great Lakes) and post-conflict reconciliation, transitional justice and war crimes, the impact of transitional justice mechanisms on post-conflict reconciliation, ethnic conflict and religious peace-building. Her doctoral thesis was published as a book by I.B. Tauris in October 2008 and she has published in a wide-range of peer-reviewed international journals.

Teaching

I am currently teaching three modules. POL370 War and Peace is a third-year module which broadly examines the changing nature of war, different types of wars, causation issues and contemporary threats to peace (such as terrorism and nuclear proliferation). POL6910 Wars, New Wars and the Liberal State is an MA module that combines theoretical discussion with case study analysis. It covers a range of topics including the new wars thesis, the democratic peace thesis and humanitarian intervention. Contemporary Ethnic Conflict is also an MA module and focuses on some of key issues and challenges that ethnic conflict presents, including how to deal with the aftermath of war crimes and genocide. I am also co-teaching POL 114 Introduction to Security Studies, a first-year module that introduces students to some of the leading theories and contemporary issues in Security Studies. I am keen to encourage independent thinking and to create a teaching environment where students feel comfortable and confident in expressing their viewpoints. My own research straddles several different disciplines and I similarly try to impart to students the importance of inter-disciplinary thinking and analysis. Through seminar discussions, students will have the opportunity to debate, to give presentations and to develop or further develop a number of valuable academic and more generic skills, including the skill of synthesizing a complex argument, presenting and defending a particular position and general communication. There is a strong overlap between my teaching and research interests, and I endeavour as much as possible to bring my research and research experiences into my teaching, in order to bring the subject alive.

Key projects and grants

Awarding Body: The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
People Involved: Dr Janine Natalya Clark
Title of Research: Milošević through the Eyes of the Serbs: Assessing the Impact of his Death
Years funded for: 1 year

Awarding Body: The Leverhulme Trust
People Involved: Dr Janine Natalya Clark
Title of Research: Judicial and Religious Paths to Peace-Building in the former Yugoslavia
Years funded for: 2 years

Current Research

I am currently working on my second book, focused on the impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on inter-ethnic reconciliation in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. I am also engaged in a smaller research project related to my recent fieldwork in the town of Vukovar in Croatia. This project centres on the role of former combatants in post-conflict societies and deals with a number of important issues including war trauma and male identity.

Key Publications

• Fieldwork and its Ethical Challenges: Reflections from Research in Bosnia, Human Rights Quarterly (forthcoming, August 2012).
• The ICTY and Reconciliation in Croatia: A Case Study of Vukovar, Journal of International Criminal Justice 10 (April 2012), pp. 397-422.
• The Impact Question: The ICTY and the Restoration and Maintenance of Peace. In Göran Sluiter, Bert Swart and Alexander Zahar (eds), The Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, May 2011), pp.55-80.
• Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Hercegovina: Are Religious Actors Doing Enough? Europe-Asia Studies 62:4 (June 2010), pp.371-394.
• Plea Bargaining at the ICTY: Guilty Pleas and Reconciliation, European Journal of International Law, 20:2 (April 2009), pp.415-436.
• Serbia in the Shadow of Milošević: The Legacy of Conflict in the Balkans (London: I.B. Tauris, 2008).

Click here for Dr Clark's full list of publications.

PhD Supervision

I am currently supervising (as second supervisor) a PhD on asylum seekers and what happens to those whose asylum claims are unsuccessful. I would be particularly interested in supervising doctoral research in the areas of post-conflict societies (particularly in the former Yugoslavia), transitional justice, war crimes and conflict intervention/resolution.