Christina Harris Adjunct Instructor SIS | SIS Faculty

Degrees: Christina V. Harris is a PhD Candidate in International Relations and an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations at AU's School of International Service. She holds an MA in International Human Rights from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and BAs in Anthropology and English Literature from Skidmore College. During her dissertation fieldwork, she was a visiting scholar at the School of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Queensland (Australia) and during her MA spent an intensive summer semester at Hebrew University with the Minerva Center for Human Rights (Israel/Palestine).
Bio: Christina's research interests include transitional justice; peacebuilding; recognition; settler colonialism and Indigenous politics; international human rights and humanitarian law; and DEI and intersectionality. At SIS, she co-leads a peer discussion group focused on interpretive research paradigms.

Christina’s current work explores the application of transitional justice theory and practice to Western liberal democracies, bringing into conversation the literatures on multiculturalism, settler colonialism and agonistic peace. Her dissertation explores how (sub)urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists and communities and the Australian state advance and conceptualize Indigenous recognition and sovereignty. Drawing on 10 months of in situ fieldwork and interviews conducted in Brisbane, Queensland as well as digital ethnography, her work elucidates the interplay of grassroots and elite narratives surrounding the 2023 referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament as well as everyday practices of reconciliation, self-recognition and resistance. Her dissertation committee includes Professors Carole Gallaher (chair), Robert Adcock and Mohammed Abu-Nimer.

At AU, Christina has served as the Lead Program Manager for Dr. Susanna Campbell's Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL) and assisted the research projects of Professors Marcelo Bohrt and Susan Shepler. Outside of academia, Christina has more than a decade of experience working with international organizations and NGOs, including UN agencies, USAID-funded projects, Amnesty International USA and Ploughshares Fund. During her time working with United Nations offices in Geneva, her work focused primarily on post-conflict peacebuilding, specifically disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), gender policy and programs, and transitional justice. Her professional and volunteer experiences have taken her to Australia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Israel & Palestine, Mexico, Switzerland and Vietnam.

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Christina Harris Adjunct Instructor SIS | SIS Faculty

Teaching

Summer 2025

Fall 2025