Student Spotlight: Powell Publishes in Student Pulse
Madelyn Powell, a second year student in the International Relations and Religion MA program, recently published an article in the peer-reviewed academic journal Student Pulse. The article, “Transitional Justice and Religion: An Examination of Faith-Based Actors in Kenyan Civil Society” examines the role of religious ideas and religious actors in Kenya’s transitional justice movement. Student Pulse is an open-access academic journal that highlights the work of students at the undergraduate level and above with a particular focus on the social sciences, arts, and humanities.
The abstract of the article follows:
This paper address two overarching research questions: first, what is the role of religion in transitional justice? Second, does the religious approach to transitional justice differ from the secular approach, and if so, how? In a theoretical section, I examine the underlying religious ideas of various transitional justice mechanisms and contrast religiously rooted ideas with primarily secular ones. Next, the paper applies this theoretical background to two recent incidents in Kenya in which transitional justice mechanisms were employed.
First, the paper examines civil society’s response to post-election violence that occurred in 2007-2008, with a key focus on the response of faith-based actors. In this instance, the International Criminal Court indicted Kenyatta, Ruto, and others for their involvement in the violence. The formation of a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission also followed the incident. Second, the paper turns to the very recent case of the Kenyan government offering amnesty to Shabaab militants after the brutal Garissa University College attack in April 2015. This section of the paper focuses on the faith-based sector of civil society’s reaction to the amnesty offer.
Madelyn Powell‘s research focuses on how religious actors such as Christian missionaries and faith-based NGOs affect civil society dynamics and interact with local and state governments in Africa and especially in Tanzania. She recently studied abroad through BU’s Swahili Language and Culture program in East Africa and was a recipient of a Pardee School Graduate Student Travel grant.