Angela D. Nichols

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science

The Impact of International Tribunals and Domestic Trials on Peace and Human Rights After Civil War

The Impact of Human Rights Organizations on Naming and Shaming Campaigns

Female Participation and Civil War Relapse

Current Research --My research focuses broadly on transitional justice. I am particularly interested in unpacking which of these wide range of approaches and particular processes therein encourage peace in transitioning societies. I also study human rights more generally. These interests include, but are not limited to, understanding the (mis)behavior of state and non-state actors and determining what impact women have in conflict and post-conflict processes. I have current and future research interests in all of these areas. My dissertation focuses on unpacking how truth commissions are able to achieve institutional legitimacy and thus contribute to the overall peace and stability of post-conflict and other transitioning societies. I would like to extend this project to include other mechanisms of transitional justice (trials, purges, lustration, amnesties, apologies, memorials, etc.). I am also interested in a variety of other human rights projects. One such paper (co-authored with Jacqueline H.R. DeMeritt and Eliza Kelly) is forthcoming at CivilWars. This paper demonstrates how the participation of women in the social and political spheres of society increases the duration of peace experienced by post-civil war states. A second project (co-authored with Eric Keels) examines the possibility that more repressive states are even less likely than their counterparts to escape the 'conflict trap.' A third paper (coauthored with James Meernik, Rosa Aloisi, and Marsha Sowell) examines why some states are the subject of naming and shaming campaigns while others are not. This paper was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution (2012) and demonstrates that human rights organizations are the link between local and international actors, making those states with more active human rights organizations more likely to be on the receiving end of Amnesty International urgent action campaigns.