The Journal of International Humanitarian Action is a peer reviewed journal that provides a forum for the dissemination of research relating to all aspects of humanitarian action.
Social scientific research geared toward humanitarian protection often engages with the direct and visibly urgent effects of crises. While invaluable in its own right, this type of engagement can undermine the importance of comprehending the ways in which protracted crises may have significant indirect and invisible effects over time. Indeed, such crises produce social and political conflicts, as well as obstacles to lasting peace, which go unnoticed if the short-term tools of policy are the primary lens through which research is conducted.
For this collection, we invite submissions which offer alternatives to dominant conceptions of time in humanitarian protection. Submitted articles should foreground the temporal dimensions of humanitarian protection and may be based in any relevant discipline, including the humanities, social sciences, law, and public policy. The collection will allow academics and practitioners to more carefully examine, challenge, and offer alternatives to the default understanding of time in international humanitarian action. This may result in the development of synergies across geographic contexts, innovations in methodology, and thinking about compound harm from a more expansive temporal vantage.
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Prof. Heather Flowe University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Heather Flowe, Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, collaborates with survivors’ organizations and legal professionals to develop memory-enhancing, low-cost procedures for legal systems globally. As Principal Investigator for the Rights for Time Network, she leads an interdisciplinary team exploring conflict’s hidden legacies in humanitarian protection and human rights policy. This UK Research and Innovation project aims to revolutionize how policymakers address long-term impacts of trauma and conflict, spanning multiple countries to address overlooked temporal dimensions of crises. -
Dr. Kirstin Wagner University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Dr. Kirstin Wagner, a research fellow in forensic psychology at the University of Birmingham, works with the Rights4Time network to integrate conflict legacies into humanitarian protection and human rights policies. Her interdisciplinary research explores the effects of violence and crises on women and children, including conflict-related sexual violence and forced migration. She earned her Ph.D. in History/International Development in 2022, focusing on sexual crimes and child abandonment by UN peacekeepers. She is dedicated to connecting health research with social justice and policy-making. -
Dr. Sajida Hassan Hussaini Foundation, Pakistan
Sajida Hassan, Director and Founder of Icon for Child and Adult Nurturing (ICAN), improves lives through research-based certified training programs. With 20+ years in Child Psychology, she collaborates with parents, teachers, and youth to promote healthy development and wellbeing. Sajida has worked on international research projects with institutions like the University of Leicester, Welcome Trust, Anna Freud Trust, ESRC, and NIHR. Her dedication earned her the Rights for Time Network, University of Birmingham UK Research Award 2023, for exploring the transformation from trauma to resilience. -
Dr. Abdullah M. Awad Institute for Critical Thought, Jordan
Dr. Abdullah M. Awad is the founding director of the Institute for Critical Thought, where he convenes seminars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as leads interdisciplinary research projects in the Arab world. His academic work has been supported with fellowships in the history department at Harvard University and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was most recently a fellow with the Rights for Time Network, studying the role of language and history in widening the temporal understanding of humanitarian protection.
