Denisa Kostovicova is Professor of Global Politics at the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a scholar of conflict and peace processes with a particular interest in post-conflict reconstruction, transitional justice and Europeanisation. She is the author of Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes (Cornell University Press, 2023) and Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space (Routledge, 2005). Professor Kostovicova co-edited eight volumes, including Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict (Routledge, 2018), Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans (2013), Bottom-up Politics: An Agency-Centred Approach to Globalization (2011), and Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (2009). Her research has been published in leading scholarly journals, such as American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, Security Dialogue, and others. Her research has been funded by a number of prestigious grants, including those by the Leverhulme Trust, MacArthur Foundation and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), among others. She currently directs a major research programme funded by the European Research Council (ERC), titled ‘Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding (JUSTINT).’ She has authored a number of policy papers on issues concerning Western Balkans’ European integration, post-conflict recovery and regional security. Her academic research and policy contributions have informed policy making at the EU, UN, and in the UK.

Research interests: Post-conflict reconstruction; Transitional justice; Divided societies; Balkan security; European integration