Cira Palli Aspero

Dr. Cira Palli-Aspero is a trained historian specialised in contemporary political history. Her work lies at the nexus of historiography and transitional justice with a focus on state-sanctioned historical commissions as mechanisms to address the legacies of the past. She obtained her Ph.D. at the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University. In her doctoral research, she developed a theoretical and methodological framework for historical commissions operating in conflicted and divided societies.

Project:

As a BOF fellow under the mentorship of Prof.Tine Destrooper, Cira will continue to develop her research on state-sanctioned historical commissions investigating what are the implications of framing historical commissions as instances of transitional justice in consolidated democracies.

Her project titled Dealing with our violent past. Should historical commissions be understood as cases of transitional justice?, examines the unforeseen and unintended effects of framing historical commissions, like the Parliamentary Commission on Belgium’s colonial legacy, as transitional justice. As consolidated democracies are now de facto becoming the bulk of transitional justice interventions, this research is being proposed at a crucial point in time. Taking into account that the relationship between transitional justice and historical commissions has not yet been explored, this research will provide a systematic approach that will be key for policy-makers, legislators, and practitioners at the time of designing new commissions aimed to foster more stable and inclusive societies.

Cira’s research, although it is not directly affiliated to the Justice Visions project, directly contributes to broaden its reach by bringing the focus to the Belgian case and exploring what transitional justice and victim participation mean for Belgium.

Education

• PhD – Transitional Justice Institute – Ulster University (2019
• Ms.C University of Barcelona  (2015)
• Bachelor’s Degree in History, University of Barcelona, Barcelona (2011)

Professional positions

• Postdoc Research Fellow: Ghent University (November 2021 – ongoing)
• Research Consultant: Victim’s Support NI (April 2020 – July 2020)
• Research Assistant:  School of Applied Social and Policy Sc. Ulster University (March 2020)
• Project Facilitator – Peace Tourism Project – INCORE at Ulster University (2020)
• Research Assistant: Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) Ulster University. (June 2018)
• Project Facilitator – Transferring Lessons of Peacebuilding – Northern Ireland and Colombia (2017).
• Research Assistant: International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) Ulster University. (October 2018)
• Conference Reporter – Royal Irish Academy (Nov. 2016)
• Research assistant – International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) Ulster University. (Oct.2015 – March 2016)

Featured Publications

• Palli-Aspero, C. (2023). “Reckoning with our violent pasts, the role of historical commissions”. Human Rights in Context.
• Palli-Aspero, C. (2023) “Addressing the legacy of the past: Historical Commissions in Consolidated Democracies”. In Destrooper T., Gissel L.,and Carlson KB.(eds) Transitional Justice in Aparadigmatic ContextsAccountability, Recognition, and Disruption. Routledge. 
• Destrooper, T. and Palli-Aspero, C. (2022) “Historical Truth and Accountability in the Post-Colonial State”. Leuven Transitional Justice Blog. Special Series: Transitional Justice and Historical Redress.
• Palli-Aspero, C. (2022) Clarifying the Past: Understanding Historical Commissions in Conflicted and Divided Societies. Routledge. Approaches to History book series.
• Palli-Aspero,C. (2020). “Historical Clarification Commissions: Revisiting the Colombian Experience”. JusticeInfo.net.
• Palli-Aspero, C. (2018). “States’ Craft: Shaping Official Histories”. international Studies Review, Volume 21, Issue 1, Pages 177–178. Book Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viy062 Golden, A.and Palli-Aspero, C. (2016). “Ethics and Commemoration”. Constitutional Conversations, No. 6 of 6. Royal Irish Academy. Conference Report