Professor Denisa  Kostovicova

Professor Denisa Kostovicova

Professor in Global Politics and Director of LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe

European Institute

Telephone
+44 (0)207 955 6916
Room No
CBG.7.03
Office Hours
By appointment via Student Hub
Connect with me

Languages
Albanian, Arabic, Czech, English, German, Serbian, Slovakian
Key Expertise
Transitional Justice, Conflict Processes, Post-conflict Reconstruction

About me

Professor Denisa Kostovicova is a leading scholar of post-conflict reconstruction with a particular interest in post-conflict justice processes. She is the author of Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space (Routledge, 2005) and Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes (Cornell University Press, 2024), which was awarded Honourable Mention by the Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies. She is also a co-editor of a number volumes, including Transnationalism in the Balkans (Routledge, 2008), Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (Ashgate 2009), Bottom up Politics: An Agency-Centred Approach to Globalisation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict (Routlege, 2018). Her work, which has also been published in top political science and international relations journals, has informed policy-making at the EU, UN and in the UK. Professor Kostovicova’s research was 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 is currently directing a major research programme funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, “Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding: From Static to Dynamic Discourses Across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups.” She has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining LSE, she held junior research fellowships at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.  

Expertise Details

Transitional Justice; Conflict Processes; Civil Society; Post-conflict Reconstruction; Balkans

Selected Publications

Books:

Denisa Kostovicova, Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk About War Crimes (Cornell University Press, 2023), Available open access. 

Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space (London and New York: Routledge, 2005) 

Co-edited volumes: 

Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict (with James Hughes) (Routledge, 2018) 

Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and James Ker-Lindsay) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 

‘Bottom-up Politics: An Agency-Centred Approach to Globalisation (with Marlies Glasius) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). 

Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic)(Aldershot: Ashgate 2009). 

Transnationalism in the Balkans(with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic),(London and New York: Routledge, 2008) (originally published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics). 

Social Science in South East Europe Syllabus Handbook/ Zbirka nastavnih planova i programa za studije drustvenih nauka u jugoistocnoj Evropi (co-edited with Mary Kaldor and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) (Beograd: Centar za obrazovne politike, 2007).  

Austrian Presidency of the EU: Regional Approaches to the Balkans (co-edited with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) (Vienna: Centre for the Study of Global Governance and The Center for European Integration Strategies in cooperation with the Renner Institute, 2006). 

Kosovo: Myths, Conflict and War (co-edited with Bulent Gokay and Kyril Drezov) (Keele: Keele European Research Centre, 1999). 

Articles: 

Ivor Sokolić, Denisa Kostovicova, Lanabi La Lova and Sanja Vico, ‘Are Domestic War Crimes Trials Biased?’, Journal of Peace Research, forthcoming. 

Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Denisa Kostovicova and Fikret Causevic, ‘Tested by the Covid-19 Economic Shock: Peace-positive Entrepreneurship and Intergroup Collaboration in Post-conflict Business Recovery,’ Conflict, Security & Development (2024), 1-26. 

Denisa Kostovicova, ‘Discursive Interaction and Agency in Transitional Justice: A Conversation Analysis Perspective,‘ Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2024), 1-21. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Lanabi La Lova, ‘Grandstanding Instead of Deliberative Policy-Making: Transitional Justice, Publicness and Parliamentary Questions in the Croatian Parliament,’ Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2024), 1-22. 

Eleanor Knott and Denisa Kostovicova, ‘To Report or Not to on Research Ethics in Political Science and International Relations: A New Dimension of Gender-based Inequality,’ American Political Science Review (2024): 1-18. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Popovski, ‘Women’s Discursive Agency in Transitional Justice Policy-making: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach.’ Review of International Studies (2023): 1-20. 

Denisa Kostovicova et al., “The ‘Digital Turn’ in Transitional Justice Research: Evaluating Image and Text as Data in the Western Balkans,” Comparative South East European Studies, 70(1) 2022: 24-46. 

Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Denisa Kostovicova and Ahmet K. Suerdem, “Persistence of Informal Networks and Liberal Peace-building: Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Journal of International Relations and Development 25 2022: 182-209. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Eleanor Knott, “Harm, Change and Unpredictability: The Ethics of Interviews in Conflict Research,” Qualitative Research 22(1) 2022: 56-73. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Tom Paskhalis, “Gender, Justice and Deliberation: Why Women Don’t Influence Peace-Making,” International Studies Quarterly, 65(2) 2021: 263-276. 

Vjollca Krasniqi, Ivor Sokolic and Denisa Kostovicova, “Skirts as Flags: Transitional Justice, Gender and Everyday Nationalism in Kosovo,” Nations and Nationalism, 26(2) 2020: 461-476. 

Denisa Kostovicova, Ivor Sokolic and Orli Fridman, “Introduction: Below Peace Agreements: Everyday Nationalism or Everyday Peace?”Nations and Nationalism 26(2) 2020: 424-430. 

Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Marsha Henry, “Drawing on the Continuum: A War and Post-war Political Economy of Gender-based Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 22(2) 2020: 250-272. 

Denisa Kostovicova, “Transitional Justice and Conflict Studies: Disconnects and Implications,” Journal of Global Security Studies 4(2) 2019: 273–278. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Aude Bicquelet, “Norm Contestation and Reconciliation: Evidence from a Regional Transitional Justice Process in the Balkans,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(4) 2017: 681-700. 

Denisa Kostovicova, “Seeking Justice in a Divided Region: Text Analysis of a Regional Civil Society Initiative in the Balkans,” International Journal of Transitional Justice, 11(1) 2017: 154–175. 

Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Vesna, Kostovicova, Denisa, Escobar, Mariana and Bjelica, Jelena (2015) ‘Organised Crime and International Aid Subversion: Evidence from Colombia and Afghanistan, Third World Quarterly 36 (10), 1887-1905. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2014), ‘When Enlargement meets Common Foreign and Security Policy: Serbia’s Europeanisation, Visa Liberalisation and the Kosovo Policy’, Europe-Asia Studies 66(1), 67-87. 

Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Denisa Kostovicova (2013), ‘Europeanisation and Conflict Networks: Private Sector Development in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina’, East European Politics 29(2), 19-35. 

Susan L. Woodward, Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (2012), ‘Introduction: Methodology and the Study of State-Building in the Western Balkans’, Südosteuropa, 60(4), 469-471.

Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Denisa Kostovicova (2012), ‘Locating Power in State-Building: The Conflict Network Perspective’, Südosteuropa 60(4), 591-602.

Denisa Kostovicova, Mary Martin and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (2012), ‘The Missing Link in Human Security Research: Dialogue and Insecurity in Kosovo’, Security Dialogue 43(6), 569-585. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2008), ‘Legitimacy and international administration: The Ahtisaari settlement for Kosovo from a Human Security perspective’, International Peacekeeping 15(5), 631-647. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2008), ‘Introduction’, Südosteuropa, Special Issue: Comparing the Balkans: War Legacies and State-Building in the Age of Globalisation, 56(1), 1-7. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Marlies Glasius (2008), ‘The European Union as a state-builder: Policies towards Serbia and Sri Lanka’, Südosteuropa 56(1), 84-114. 

Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Mary Martin (2007), ‘Civil society’s role in advancing human security: European Union policies in the Western Balkans,’ Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, 47(1), 20-33. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2006), ‘Civil society and post-Communist democratization: facing a double challenge in post-Milošević Serbia’, Journal of Civil Society 2(1), 21-37. 

Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (2006), ‘Europeanizing the Balkans: Rethinking the post-communist and post-conflict transition‘, Ethnopolitics 5(3), 223-241. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2004), ‘Post-socialist identity, territoriality and European integration: Serbia’s return to Europe after Milosevic’, GeoJournal 61(1), 23-30. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2004), ‘Republika Srpska and its boundaries in Bosnian Serb geographic narratives in the post-Dayton Period’, Space & Polity 8(3), 267-287. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2003), ‘The Albanians in Great Britain: diasporic identity and experience in the educational perspective’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 5(1), 53-69. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2003), ‘Education, gender and religion: identity transformations among Kosovo Albanians in London’ (with Albert Prestreshi), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 29(6), 1079-1096. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2002), ‘The portrayal of the yoke: the Ottomans and their rule in the post-1990 Albanian-language history textbooks’, Internationale Schulbuchforschung-International Textbook Research 24(3), 257-278. 

Book chapters: 

‘Civil Society in post-Yugoslav Space: The Test of Discontinuity and Democratization, (with Ivor Sokolic and Adam Fagan), in The Legacy of Yugoslavia Politics, Economics and Society in the Modern Balkans,Othon Anastasakis et al. (Eds). (London: IB Taurus, 2020).

‘Global Civil Society, Peacebuilding and Statebuilding’ (with Mary Kaldor) in The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding and Peace Formation, Oliver P. Richmond and Gëzim Visoka (Eds). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) 

‘European Union in the Western Balkans: Hybrid Development, Hybrid Security and Hybrid

Justice’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Elisa Randazzo), in Mary Kaldor and Iavor Rangelov, eds. From Hybrid Peace to Human Security. (Abindgon: Routledge, 2018) 

Ethnicity Pays: The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Nationalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic), in Bill Kissane (ed.) After Civil War: Division, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation in Contemporary Europe. (Pennsylvania University Press, 2014). 

‘State-building, nation-building and reconstruction’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and David Rampton) in Global Security Handbook, Mary Kaldor and Iavor Rangelov (eds) (Wiley Blackwell, 2014). 

‘From Concept to Method: The Challenge of a Human Security Methodology’ (with Mary Martin) Handbook of Human Security, Mary Martin and Taylor Owen (eds) (New York and London: Routledge, 2014). 

Airing Crimes, Marginalizing Victims: Political Expectations and Transitional Justice in Kosovo’ in Timothy William Waters (ed.) The Milosevic Trial: An Autopsy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). 

Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, ‘Introduction: Civil Society and Multiple Transitions – Meanings, Actors and Effects’ in Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, James Ker-Lindsay and Denisa Kostovicova (eds) Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

‘Introduction: Agency in Bottom-up Politics’ (with Marlies Glasius) in Denisa Kostovicova and Marlies Glasius (eds) Bottom-up Politics: An Agency-Centred Approach to Globalisation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). 

'External Statebuilding and Transnational Networks: The Limits of the Civil Society Approach' (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) in Denisa Kostovicova and Marlies Glasius (eds) Bottom-up Politics: An Agency-Centred Approach to Globalisation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) 

‘Civil Society in the Western Balkans: Vehicle for or obstacle to transitional justice’, in Wolfgang Petritsch and Vedran Dzihic (eds), Conflict and Memory: Bridging Past and Future in | South East | Europe, (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft | Southeast European Integration Perspectives, vol. 3, 2010), pp. 287-294. 

‘Human security in a weak state in the Balkans: Globalization and transnational networks’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) in Wolfgang Benedek, Petrus van Duyne, Christopher Daase and Vojin Dimitrijevic (eds.), Transnational Terrorism, Organized Crime, and Peace-Building: The State of the Art in Human Security in the Western Balkans (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 38-53.  

‘Civil society in post-conflict scenarios’ in Helmut Anheier and Stefan Toepfler (eds) International Encyclopedia of Civil Society (New York: Springer, 2010), pp. 371-376. 

‘Introduction: State Weakening and Globalization’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) in Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (eds), Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 1-16. 

‘Conclusion: Persistent State Weakness and Issues for Research, Methodology and Policy’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic), in Kostovicova, Denisa and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (eds) Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 197-205. 

‘The European Union as state-builder: Policies towards Serbia and Sri Lanka’ (with Marlies Glasius) in Julia Raue and Patrick Sutter (eds), Facets and Practices of State-Building (Leijden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009), pp. 127-153 (expanded and updated article published in Suedosteuropa, 56(1), 2008).  

‘Albanian parallel education system and its aftermath: Segregation, identity and governance’ in Augusta Dimou (ed.), "Transition" and the Politics of History Education in Southeast Europe (Goettingen: Vanderhoeck und Ruprecht, 2009), pp. 201-215. 

‘Opening up of illiberal regimes’ (with Mary Kaldor) in Mary Kaldor et al. (eds) Global Civil Society 2007/8 (London: Sage, 2007), pp. 86-113. 

‘EU and the challenges of the weak state in the Balkans’ in Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (eds), Austrian Presidency of the EU: Regional Approaches to the Balkans (Vienna: Centre for the Study of Global Governance and The Center for European Integration Strategies in cooperation with the Renner Institute, 2006), pp. 140-148. 

‘Introduction’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic) in Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (eds), Austrian Presidency of the EU: Regional Approaches to the Balkans (Vienna: Centre for the Study of Global Governance and The Center for European Integration Strategies in cooperation with the Renner Institute, 2006), pp. 17-23. 

‘War and peace: The role of global civil society’ (with Mary Kaldor and Yahia Said) in Mary Kaldor et al. (eds) Global Civil Society 2006/7 (London: Sage, 2006), pp. 94-119. 

‘Old and new insecurity in the Balkans: Learning from the EU’s involvement in Macedonia’ in A Human Security Doctrine for Europe: Project, Principles, Practicalities, Marlies Glasius and Mary Kaldor (eds) (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 43-70. 

‘Serbia’s democratization and the resolution of the Kosovo dispute’ in Security in Southeastern Europe, ed. Aleksandar Fatic (Beograd: Security Policy Group, The Management Centre, 2004), pp. 163-188. 

‘Secret schools in Kosovo: between civic action and legal void(s)’ in Global Civil Society 2003, Mary Kaldor, Helmut Anheier and Marlies Glasius (eds) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 222-223. 

‘Shkolla shqipe and nationhood: Albanians’ pursuit of education in the native language in interwar (1918-1941) and post-autonomy (1989-1998) Kosovo) in Albanian Identities: Myth, Narratives and Politics, Stephanie Schwandner Sievers and Bernd Fischer (eds) (London: Hurst & Co., 2002), pp. 157-171. 

‘Albanian schooling in Kosovo 1992-1998: ‘Liberty Imprisoned’” in Kosovo: The Politics of Delusion, Michael Waller et al. (eds) (London and Portland, Or: Frank Cass, 2001), pp. 11-19. 

‘Kosovo’s parallel society: the successes and failures of non-violence’ in Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions, William Joseph Buckley (ed.) (Grand Rapids, Michigan/ Cambridge, UK: Eerdmand Publishing Co., 2000), pp. 142-148. 

‘The Kosovo Educational System’ (with Shkelzen Maliqi) in Southeast Europe Educational Initiatives and Co-operations for Peace, Mutual Understanding, Tolerance and Democracy (Graz: Center for the Study of Balkan Societies and Cultures, 1998), pp. 133-140. 

Blogs: 

Lessons in Political Communication with Denisa Kostovicova, Cornell Blog, 24 May 2023 

Brothers No More? What the EU’s Diplomatic Breakthrough on Kosovo Means for Serbia-Russia Relations, EUROPP Blog, 7 March 2023 

Lessons from the Balkans: How Justice can be Achieved for the Victims of War Crimes in Ukraine (with Rachel Kerr), EUROPP blog, 13 May 2022 

We Need a Regional Approach to Justice after Mass Atrocity, LSE Research for the World, 12 May 2022 

A Closer Look at the Political Economy of Gender-based Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Marsha Henry, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 10 February 2020 

Text Illuminations: From the Method to the Artefact (with Ivor Sokolic, Tom Paskhalis and artist Nela Milic), LSE Department of Government Blog, 28 November 2018

Sitting on the Fence: How the London Summit Exposed the Inertia in the EU’s Reconciliation Policy for the Western Balkans, EUROPP Blog, 20 July 2018

Reconciliation as Activity: Constraints and Possibilities (with Ivor Sokolic). LSE Department of Government Blog, 22 March 2018

For whom Does Justice Work? The Mladić Verdict and Prospects for Reconciliation in the Balkans, EUROPP Blog, 22 November 2017

What Previous Political Divorces in Europe Tell us about the Emotional Impact of Brexit, EUROPP Blog, 5 July 2016

Reaction to Brexit around Europe: How the result affects the Balkans, EUROPP Blog, 24 June 2016

The Karadzic Verdict: How the Trial Played out and what it Means for Bosnia, EUROPP Blog, 24 March 2016 

Personal Take on Methods. LSE Department of Government Blog, 24 March 2016

The Question of Ethics. LSE Department of Government Blog, 02 Mar 2016

Researching Transitional Justice in the Balkans: War Crimes Victims and their Civic Voice, Government Department Blog, 18 February 2016

Women in Conflict: Violence, Injustice and Power. Government Department at LSE Blog, 6 May 2015

The ICJ Ruling on Genocide by Croatia and Serbia should be a Starting Point for Genuine Reconciliation between the Two Countries. LSE European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) Blog, 11 February 2015

Serbia now has a Pro-European parliament, but the Country’s Path to EU Accession Looks as Uncertain as Ever. LSE EUROPP Blog, 27 Mar 2014

Bosnia’s Civil Disorder is a Consequence of the Stranglehold ‘Networked’ Elites Continue to have over the Country. LSE EUROPP Blog, 11 February 2014 Blog Entry,

The trial of Ratko Mladic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia shows once again that it is possible to have justice without reconciliation. LSE EUROPP Blog, 30 July 2012

Last week Serbia was granted candidate status for joining the EU, which may offer a way forward for Serbia’s future relationship with Kosovo. But rocky times may still lie ahead. EUROPP Blog, 5 March 2012 

Policy analysis, commentary and op-eds:

ERC JUSTINT Policy Paper ‘Inter- and intra-ethnic dialogues on war-time violence and its legacies’ with Ivor Sokolic and Sanja Vico, 19 October 2023.

Denisa Kostovicova (2016) ‘Brexit’s twin risks for the Balkans’, Europe’s World, Autumn, pp.70-71

Denisa Kostovicova  (2016) ‘EU in the Western Balkans: Hybrid Development, Hybrid Security and Hybrid Justice’ (with Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Elisa Randazzo, in: ‘From Hybrid Peace to Human Security: Rethinking EU Strategy towards Conflict’, The Berlin Report of the Human Security Study Group (LSE, ERC, and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung: London, 2016), Presented to the European External Action Service, 24 February 2016, Brussels (The report is available at: http://www.securityintransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HSSGReport.pdf)

Denisa Kostovicova  (2013) ‘Civil Society and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Great Expectation?’ in Eviola Prifti (ed.) ‘The European Future of the Western Balkans:  Thessaloniki@10 (2003-2013)’ (European Union Institute for Security Studies: Paris), pp. 101-107; ISBN 978-92-9198-226-4; doi:10.2815/33026 link: http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Thessalonikiat10.pdf

Mary Martin, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Denisa Kostovicova, Anne Wittman, Stefanie Moser (2012), ‘Ending the Conflict, Owning the Peace: Local Ownership in International Peace Operations’, Policy Paper, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, June.

Denisa Kostovicova (2012) Civil Society and Restorative Justice in the Western Balkans: From Symbolic Politics to State Consolidation’, Forum for Transitional Justice, No. 4 (December), pp. 75-77.

Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (2010) ‘Weak States, The Big Question: How Can Nations Break the Cycle of Crime and Corruption’, World Policy Journal, Volume 27, Number 1, Spring 2010, pp. 5-6.

Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Natasa Kandic (2009) ‘Introduction’, Forum for Transitional Justice, Special Issue: European Union and Transitional Justice: From Retributive to Restorative Justice in Western Balkans, Vol. 3, pp. 75-78.

Denisa Kostovicova (2009) ‘Balkan wars, European Integration and Hague Conditionality’, Forum for Transitional Justice, Special Issue: European Union and Transitional Justice: From Retributive to Restorative Justice in Western Balkans, Vol. 3, pp. 81-83.

Denisa Kostovicova (2008) 'Albanian diasporas and their political roles' in Judy Batt (ed.) Is There an Albanian Question?, Chaillot Paper, No. 107, January, pp. 73-86.

Denisa Kostovicova (2008) ‘Serbian Elections: Who has actually won and what does this mean for the EU?’ Opinion - n°0, February, Balkan Crisis Room, European Union: Institute for Security Studies, Paris.  

Denisa Kostovicova (2007) ‘European Zones of Human Security: A proposal for the European Union’, The Study Group on Human Security, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, February.

Denisa Kostovicova (2007-8) ‘State weakness in the Western Balkans as a security threat: The European Union approach and a global perspective’, Western Balkans Security Observer, No.7-8, pp. 10-15.

Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (2006) ‘The Balkans in globalization’s throes’, Internationale Politik, 7(2), pp. 92-97.

Denisa Kostovicova (2005) ‘Kosovo’s unresolved status’, Development & Transition, Issue 2, pp. 19-20.

Denisa Kostovicova and Natalija Basic (2004) ‘Conference Report: Transnationalism in the Balkans: The emergence, nature and impact of cross-national linkages on an enlarged and enlarging Europe, 26–27 November, Contemporary European History, 14(4), pp. 583- 590.

Denisa Kostovicova (2004), ‘Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities: The Balkans background paper’, Human Security Report Publications, 2004.

Denisa Kostovicova and Dimitar Becev (2004) Kosovo: Successes and Failures of International Civil and Military Involvement. Debate held at the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s, 30 March. South East Europe Series, Discussion Report, DP31. Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. 

Denisa Kostovicova (2004) ‘The presentation of Europe and the Balkans in the South-East European textbooks: the Albanian language textbooks used in the ‘parallel’ primary and secondary schools in the post-autonomy Kosovo in the 1990s’, South East Europe Textbook Network.   

Current Projects

Since 2018, Professor Kostovicova has been leading a 5-year project funded by the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant entitled ‘Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding: From Static to Dynamic Discourses across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups (JUSTINT)’. To learn about the project visit: http://www.lse.ac.uk/european-institute/research/justint. In 2015, she was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust to investigate ‘Reconciliation Within and Across Divided Societies: Evidence from the Balkans’. She has recently completed research collaboration with King’s College London and University of the Arts London, on the project ‘Art and Reconciliation: Conflict, Culture and Community,’ funded through the Large Grant scheme of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under the Conflict Theme of the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS) and through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) (2016-2019), to learn about the project see: artreconciliation.org. In 2017-2018, Professor Kostovicova co-ordinated together with Dr Marsha Henry from the LSE’s Department of Gender Studies, the Bosnia and Herzegovina work-package of the ESRC Strategic Network on Gender Violence Across War and Peace, based at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security.

Previously, Professor Kostovicova’s research was supported by a number of grants, including from the MacArthur Foundation, Volkswagen Foundation, the EU's 7th Framework Programme, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD). She has also collaborated on numerous international research projects, such as the European Study Group on Europe's Security Capabilities, convened by Professor Mary Kaldor at the invitation of Javier Solana, former EU Foreign Policy Chief (2004-2008, reconvened in 2016); Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-funded project on local ownership ‘Exiting Conflict, Owning the Peace’; and was a member of an international team appointed by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany, to assess Kosovo Albanians history textbooks on behalf of the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Education Ministry in Kosovo.

Teaching Responsibilities

Professor Kostovicova convenes a specialist course on Globalisation, conflict and post-conflict reconstruction (EU4A2) and Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Europe and Beyond (EU485). She has also taught courses on comparative conflict analysis, global politics and global civil society. Before joining LSE, she had contributed teaching at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. From 2014-2018, Professor Kostovicova convened MSc Conflict Studies in the Department of Government. She is the Programme Director of MSc Culture and Conflict in Global Europe, 2019-2020. She was awarded the Major Review Teaching Prize, and was a nominee for the LSESU’s Student-Led Teaching Excellence prize twice. Her PhD students have worked on different aspects of conflict, transitional justice, and post-conflict reconstruction on a range of case-studies, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Israel-Palestine, Crimea and Moldova.

Public Policy and Public Engagement

Professor Kostovicova maintains a keen interest in policy implications of her research on post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation, and regularly engages in knowledge exchange with policy makers in the EU, the UK and the Balkans. Most recently, she has contributed to the House of Lords International Relations Committee Inquiry report ‘The UK and the future of the Western Balkans’ and the House of Commons Balkans Inquiry. She has written policy papers and reports for the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme. She authored many policy analysis pieces published by Oxford Analytica, Chaillot Papers, Strategic Comment (Institute of Strategic Studies), openDemocracy, Warreport, Transitions on-line, Development & Transition, etc. She has contributed comment for the UK and international media, including The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Observer, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, Associated Press, Public Radio International (US), and others. Also, she regularly blogs for LSE’s Department of Government blog and EUROPP.

 

Education and Professional Experience

Professor Kostovicova graduated from the University of Maine, U.S., and has a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an MA from the Central European University, Czech Republic. Before joining the LSE, she held Junior Research Fellowships at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Linacre College, Oxford. Prior to pursuing her graduate studies, she worked as a journalist during the wars of Yugoslavia’s dissolution in 1990s, reporting for the CNN World Report and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others.

Video and Audio

What we should have known (TEDx talk - TEDxLSE, March 2017)

Women in Conflict: violence, injustice and power (LSE Government 'Conflict Research Group' public lecture, April 2015)