Dr Olivera Simic from the Griffith Law School has won the Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in an Early Career Researcher Award for her work in transitional justice and international peacekeeping.
Her research is based on personal experience. She was just 19 when war broke out in her country, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and moved to Serbia to continue her education at the University of Nis, Law School.
For three years, she lived in a refugee camp and studied law. Her graduation coincided with the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which she experienced first-hand.
“These years were instrumental in shaping my thinking both in terms of what I want to do and how I want to make a difference,’’ said Dr Simic who teaches transitional justice and evidence at the Griffith Law School.
“Because of this, I believe that my writing is a motivating and sustaining force joined with discipline and scholarly dedication.”
“Although they have many similarities, each has its own theoretical framework and scholarship.”
Dr Simic’s latest book,Surviving Peace, A Political Memoir,will be published in August 2014.
She is the author of Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations, 2012), Series Editor of the Springer Book Series in Transitional Justice, and co-editor of Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans, Peace Psychology in the Balkans and the Arts of Transitional Justice: Culture, Activism and Memory after Atrocity.
Dr Simic was the recipient of the 2013 Peace Women Award from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
The Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence Awards were announced at the Sir Samuel Griffith Building, Nathan campus on May 29.