BU Sociology

BIO AND RESEARCH
I received a B.A in Political Science and Women’s Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S (2001) and a MSc in International Development and Gender at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, U.K (2003). I have been enrolled in the B.U. Sociology PhD since 2006. I spent the Fall 2008 as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths College, University of London, U.K.

My research interests include international transitional justice, international human rights, the sociology of international development, cultural sociology and postcolonial, organization, and gender theory. My dissertation research focuses on truth commissions. In particular, I am interested in exploring why truth commissions have become such a popular mechanism for post-conflict reconstruction and transitional justice and why they have proliferated and persisted despite much critique and little empirical evidence that they meet their mandated objectives.

PUBLICATIONS
Gurd, Kiri. 2006. “Connections and Complicities: Reflections on Epistemology, Violence, and Humanitarian Aid.” International Journal of Women’s Studies, Special Edition.

Gurd, Kiri and Rashida Manjoo. Forthcoming (2009). “The Need for a New Narrative: challenging hegemonic meanings of human rights violations in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” In Robin Chandler, Lihau Wang, and Linda Fuller (eds.), Women, War, and Violence: Personal Perspectives and Global Activism. Palgrave-MacMillan.