The University of Sheffield
Department of Politics

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

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 has been making regular fieldtrips to the area since 2002. She speaks Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (as well as French) and most recently she spent a month conducting fieldwork in Kosovo; this included interviewing former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Her research interests span several disciplines and include transitional justice, the relationship between international criminal courts and reconciliation, gender and conflict, wartime rape and sexual violence, ethnic conflict and the role of ex-combatants in post-conflict societies. Her doctoral thesis was published as a book by I.B. Tauris in October 2008, she is currently writing her second research monograph and she has published in a wide-range of peer-reviewed international journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, the International Journal of Transitional Justice, the Journal of International Criminal Justice and the Journal of Genocide Research.

Dr Clark is currently the departmental Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching (semester 1 only), the Disability Liaison Officer, the Women’s Tutor and the Learning Resources Officer. She is a member of both the departmental International Politics research group and the Centre for Criminological Research in the School of Law.

Teaching

During the 2012/13 academic year, I am teaching four modules. POL3121 War, Peace and Justice is a third-year module which broadly examines the changing nature of war, different types of wars, causation issues, contemporary threats to peace (such as terrorism) and the contested relationship between peace and justice. 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 POL114 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 bridges 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.

Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures

‘Transitional Justice in the former Yugoslavia: A Critical Assessment of the ICTY’, symposium on Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Haifa, Israel (June 2012).

Research Grants

Current Research

Key Publications

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

PhD Supervision

I am currently supervising as first supervisor a PhD on how transitional justice processes, and victims’ recourse to these processes, shapes the meaning of victimhood. I am also 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 ethnic conflict.