TraCe Highlight Publication: Hannig, Nicolai/Engelschalt, Julia (2024): Fashion, Mobility, and Pro­test: The Sapeur Move­ment in Congo, in: Historical Social Re­search, 49: 4, 120–134, DOI: https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.49.2024.38.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Emer­ging as a fashio­nable pro­test against Western clothing bans in dicta­torial Congo in the second half of the twentieth century , the sapeur move­ment used flamboyant Euro­pean styles to de­fiantly sub­vert high-society norms. By ana­lyzing inter­national media from the 1970s to to­day, this article seeks to under­stand the sa­peur as an inter­loper between seve­ral spheres.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more highlights on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This last highlight publication by Nicolai Hannig and Julia Engelschalt (both @tuda.bsky.social) examines the Congolese Sapeur Movement – using fashion to protest the Western clothing bans of the Mobutu regime.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

TraCe Highlight Publication: Ahlheim, Hannah/Cramer, Tina/Fuhrmann, Larissa-Diana/Guntrum, Laura/Ismail, Nadia/Mannitz, Sabine/Marauhn, Thilo/Lasso Mena, Verena/Oettler, Anika/Schwab, Regine/Spittler, Sara-Luise/Wolff, Jonas (2025): (Un)Sichtbarkeit von Ge­walt, Frankfurt/Main, TraCe Wor­king Paper No. 6, DOI: 10.48809/PRIFTraCeWP2506.

TraCe Highlight Publication: What mecha­nisms determine the visibility or in­visibility of violence? Written in the context of the exhibition “(In)Visibility of Violence” (KUNSTHALLE GIESSEN, 2025), this TraCe Working Paper exa­mines forms, geographical contexts, and both historical and contem­porary con­ditions of violence. The paper is a prime example for TraCe’s know­ledge transfer: It connects artistic and aca­demic perspec­tives on vio­lence and makes them accessible to a non-academic au­dience through numerous examples and pictures.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read all publications on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This highlight publication, TraCe Working Paper No. 6 – a collaboration with @kunsthallegiessen.bsky.social – unites interdisciplinary perspectives of researchers on the (in)visibility of violence.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

TraCe Highlight Publication: Reiss, Mariel/Sogunro, Ayodele (2026) (Hrsg.): Joy, Reflec­tions, Resistance - LGBTIQ+ Lived Rea­lities in Africa. Scholarly and Activist Perspec­tives, Leverkusen, Deutschland: Verlag Bar­bara Budrich.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Buil­ding on the themes of vio­lence, resistance, and soli­darity, this book explores inter­sections of knowledge-production and -transfer between diverse scholarly and activist spheres and here­with contri­butes to metho­dological, conceptual, and normative aspects of centring LGBTIQ+ rights and lived realities in mani­fold African contexts. The chap­ters dis­cuss the longer histo­rical developments of homo- and transphobic bills, legis­lations, and de jure prac­tices as well as their effects for LGBTIQ+ persons (until) today.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This highlight publication by @marielreiss.bsky.social and Ayodele Sogunro explores LGBTIQ+ lived realities in African contexts at the intersections of knowledge-production and -transfer.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

TraCe Highlight Publication: De Wolff, Kaya/Nguherimo, Jephta (2025): The Ova­herero and Nama People’s Struggle for Resto­rative Justice: An Activist-Scholar Lens, in: Jour­nal of Genocide Re­search, 1–18, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2025.2559463.

TraCe Highlight Publication: This article ex­plores the ongoing struggle of the Ova­herero and Nama struggle to obtain an apo­logy and reparations for the colonial geno­cide committed by German troops in 1904 to 1908 in Nami­bia. By co-publishing this article in tandem as a Ger­man academic scholar and a Namibian repa­ration activist, the authors move from an extrac­tivist practice of scholar­ship to a form of mutually beneficial know­ledge production.

TraCe Highlight Publication: All publications can be found on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In @journalgenocide.bsky.social, Kaya de Wolff and Jephta Nguherimo explore the ongoing struggle of Ovaherero and Nama for restorative justice for the colonial genocide committed by Germany in 1904 to 1908 in Namibia.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Citation of the book "Peace and the Politics of Memory".

Description of the book's content.

Link to the TraCe Website to read more about the highlight publications.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This highlight publication – a @manchesterup.bsky.social book – explores memory politics and its impact on the quality of peace in societies transitioning from a violent past.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Picture of Esin Gülsen.

We are happy to welcome Esin Gülsen, our newest Associate Fellow from @goetheuni.bsky.social & Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform!

Esin examines the transmission of intergenerational memories of violence in the Kurdish diaspora in Germany.

👉 www.trace-center.de/en/about-us/...

Special Issue: Dis­playing and Processing Poli­tical Violence in Museum Spa­ces, Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann & Sabine Mannitz (Hrsg.) (2025), Cultural Dyna­mics, 37: 1–2, DOI: 10.1177/09213740251323352

This issue of the jour­nal Cultural Dynamics brings together contri­butions by scholars from PRIF, Goethe Uni­versity, and the University of Mar­burg. Their research on the cultural memory of poli­tical violence is focused here in particular on inter­pretive frameworks through which museums communi­cate these histories to a broader public.

Read more: All publication highlights can be found on our website: www.trace-center.de/en/publications/highlights

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This Cultural Dynamics Special Issue examines perspectives on the cultural memory of political violence by researchers from @prif.org, @goetheuni.bsky.social & @unimarburg.bsky.social, focusing on museums.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

The Graphic recording shows a lettering in the center of the picture that says “four years of research on political violence”. At the top of the lettering, there’s a visualization of the four TraCe Research Fields in form of a directional sign. Every field is structured in themes with small drawings and the research question addressed there. Below the lettering there’s a chronological structured map, that shows the TraCe events and conferences, as well as knowledge transfer facts and figures.

🎉 4 years of research on political violence!

As TraCe concludes its first funding phase, we reflected on our journey at our retreat in Lollar. This graphic recording by Christa Fajen captures our research, exchange, and activities. Ready for the next chapter!

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/news-1/de...

Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Kaya de Wolff, Astrid Erll, Sybille Frank, Nicolai Hannig, Sabine Mannitz, Mariel Reiss, Jona Schwerer, Sara-Luise Spittler & Monika Wingender (2024). Memory Before Vio­lence. TraCe Wor­king Paper No. 5, DOI: 10.48809/PRIFTraCeWP2405.

In this work­ing paper, TraCe re­searchers from various fields (including the social sciences and the hu­manities, history, media studies, and linguistics) reflect on “memory before violence.” The work­ing paper suggests turn­ing around the temporal per­spective on the memory-violence nexus. In six case studies, authors address “memory before vio­lence” – in Brazil, in Canada, in Uganda and Kenya, in Russia and Ukraine, and in Ger­many.

Read more: All publication highlights can be found on our website: www.trace-center.de/en/publications/highlights

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: TraCe Working Paper No. 5, written by a multi-disciplinary team of TraCe researchers, reflects on “memory before violence” by analyzing six case studies.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Juan Pablo Scarfi & Hendrik Simon (2023); ReflectiÖns on 200 Years of the Mon­roe Doctrine; Völkerrechts­blog, 18.12.2023, DOI: 10.17176/20231218-111106-0.

What does the Mon­roe Doctrine – or perhaps better: the multiple Monroe Doc­trines since 1823 – actually stand for to­day? How can we look back on it 200 years after its first appea­rance? In this blog post, authors build on discussions of a TraCe conference on the Monroe Doctrine in Frankfurt, December 2023. This re­search agenda will be pur­sued further in a forth­coming edited volume by Raphaël Cahen, León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, and Hendrik Simon.

Read more: All publication highlights can be found on our website: www.trace-center.de/en/publications/highlights

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In this symposium, @hendrikpsimon.bsky.social (@fgz-risc.bsky.social & @prif.org) and Juan Pablo Scarfi started on @voelkerrechtsblog.org, the authors examine what the Monroe Doctrine stands for today.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Hendrik Simon & Lothar Brock (2023) | Transformation(en) der Gewaltrechtfertigung? Zum Verhältnis von Kriegs­legitimation und internationaler Ordnungsbildung in Geschichte und Gegenwart | TraCe Working Paper No. 2, DOI: 10.48809/PRIFTraCeWP2302

Die Geschichte poli­tischer Gewalt ist zugleich eine Ge­schichte ihrer Recht­fertigung und Kritik: Seit jeher wird politische Gewalt von Theo­rien und Prak­tiken ihrer (De-)Legiti­mation begleitet – auf nationaler wie auch auf inter- und trans­nationaler Ebene. Das zweite TraCe Working Paper unter­sucht, wie sich diese Prak­tiken ge­wandelt haben und ob Konti­nuität oder Brüche domi­nieren.

Read more: All publication highlights can be found on our website. www.trace-center.de/en/publications/highlights

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In this highlight publication, @hendrikpsimon.bsky.social (@fgz-risc.bsky.social & @prif.org) & Lothar Brock @goetheuni.bsky.social examine the reciprocal relationship between war justifications & international order.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

A group photo of 22 people standing on a staircase in front of a brick house, posing for a photo.

🎉 Looking back & looking ahead: During a two-day internal retreat on March 12–13 in Lollar, the TraCe network revisited four years of collaboration, bid farewell to colleagues moving on & discussed TraCe’s research agenda for the upcoming years.
👉 www.trace-center.de/en/news-1/de...

TraCe Highlight Publication: Acuña, Diana C./Quishpe, Rafael C./Salazar, Mónica A./Ugarriza, Juan E. (2023): Transitioning Guerrillas: An Analysis of the Internal Cohesion of the Former FARC in their Transition from War to Democracy, in: Latin American Politics and Society, 66: 3, 79–106, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2023.37.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Ex-rebel politi­cal parties often e­merge after peace accords but fre­quently fragment and dis­appear, increasing the risk of re­newed political vio­lence. Using quanti­tative data on former FARC guerrillas in Colom­bia who joined a newly founded legal po­litical party, the authors' findings suggest that suppor­ting organi­zational reengi­neering efforts among for­mer rebels – with a focus on cohesion – can miti­gate the negative conse­quences of rebel party collapse.

TraCe Highlight Publication: All publication highlights can be found on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: This highlight publication by Rafael Quishpe Contreras @jlugiessen.bsky.social, Mónica Salazar, Juan E. Ugarriza & Diana C. Acuña examines the transition of former rebel organizations into political parties.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Cover of TraCe Working Paper No. 8: The Long Shadow of Colonial Violence Against LGBTIQ+ Kenyans | Mariel Reiss & Āryā Jeipea Karijo.

🌈 New TraCe Working Paper “The Long Shadow of Colonial Violence Against LGBTIQ+ Kenyans”

@marielreiss.bsky.social & Āryā Jeipea Karijo argue that current anti-LGBTIQ+-violence in Kenya is rooted in norms & legislation introduced by British colonialism.

📝 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

TraCe Highlight Publication: Pfeifer, Hanna/Schwab, Regine (2023): Re-examining the State/Non-state Binary in the Study of (Civil) War, in: Civil Wars, 25: 2–3, 426–449, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2023.2254654.

TraCe Highlight Publication: One of the funda­mental distinctions informing studies on civil war is that be­tween state and non-state actors as parties to an armed con­flict. As TraCe authors argue, this binary has come under increased scrutiny in light of re­cent develop­ments in armed con­flicts. Drawing on examples from conflict zones in West Asia and North Africa, they investi­gate phenomena in civil wars that un­cover the tenuity of state/non-state dis­tinction.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more on TraCe Website

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In the @civilwarsjournal.bsky.social, @hannapfeifer.bsky.social and @reginesonja.bsky.social analyze conflict zones in West Asia and North Africa to examine the binary of state and non-state actors in civil wars. 🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Highlight Publication: Marauhn, Thilo (2025): Multi-normativity and Multi-level Governance: Fresh Perspectives on the Strengthening of Norms against Chemical and Biological Weapons, in: Barry de Vries (ed.), Chemical and Biological Weapons, Leiden, Niederlande: Brill | Nijhoff, 1–12, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004739192_002.

TraCe Highlight Publication: The bans on chemical and bi­ological weapons are founda­tional to global dis­armament and inter­national security. However, these re­gimes are under in­creasing strain due to recent vio­lations and broa­der insti­tutional challenges. This book intro­duction re­flects on two con­cepts helpful to ex­plain the complex­ities of multi­lateral regu­lations: the estab­lished no­tion of multi-level gover­nance and the mo­re recent no­tion of multi-norma­tivity.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more on our Website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In this edited volume by Barry de Vries, Thilo Marauhn (jlugiessen.bsky.social) reflects two perspectives on the strengthening of norms against chemical and biological weapons.🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

TraCe Highlight Publication: González Villamizar, Juliana/Peters, Stefan (2025): Los enfoques diferenciales desde una vocación transformadora: El trabajo de la Comisión de la Verdad en Colombia, in: Una mirada a la Comisión de la Verdad de Colombia. Aprendizajes, reflexiones y siete desafíos contemporáneos, Bogotá, Colombia: Edición Planeta, 115–136.

TraCe Highlight Publication: This book chapter exa­mines the transformative use of differen­tial approaches in the work of Colom­bia’s Truth Commission, focusing on how di­verse social positions and ex­periences of violence are incor­porated into truth-seeking processes. It ana­lyzes how these approaches aim not only to docu­ment harm but also to challenge struc­tural inequalities and pro­mote inclusive recognition of vic­tims.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more on our Website

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: Juliana González Villamizar and Stefan Peters (both @jlugiessen.bsky.social) take a closer look at Colombia’s Truth Commission – analyzing how its work also aims to challenge structural inequalities (in Spanish).
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Ben Cristian, Johanna Speyer & Lisbeth Zimmermann (2024); The rules-based international order will not survive if its institutions only work in powerful states’ interests. LSE Blog, 11.12.2024

The current inter­national order is in crisis, but what ac­tion to take to add­ress this is hotly de­bated. Coun­tering a sugges­tion to reform global insti­tutions by giv­ing more po­wer to al­ready power­ful states, this blog post argues that this path would deepen the exis­ting crisis: The rules-based inter­national order which rests on multi­lateral cooperation will fail if its insti­tutions are re­formed to work even more in the inte­rest of power­ful sta­tes.

Read more: All publication highlights can be found on our website: www.trace-center.de/en/publications/highlights

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights:

On @lseblogs.bsky.social, @benchristian.bsky.social, Johanna Speyer (@prif.org), and Lisbeth Zimmermann (@goetheuni.bsky.social) argue that favoring powerful states undermines the rules-based international order.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Picture of Tobias Ide.

We warmly welcome our newest Associate Fellow Tobias Ide from @tuda.bsky.social & @prif.org! Tobias examines causes and consequences of political violence in the context of climate change and environment.

👉 www.trace-center.de/en/about-us/...

More Gradualism than Shock? Observations on how Syria’s New Islamist Rulers Are Building a State - PRIF BLOG When Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies swept into Damascus in December 2024, many observers feared a replication of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. After all, HTS was a group with roots...

📢 New #PRIFblog: Syria's political transition is driven by gradual institution-building rather than revolutionary zeal. As @reginesonja.bsky.social, Ammar Hassan and Samer Massoud argue, this approach’s success will be decisive for the country's stability.
➡️ blog.prif.org/2026/02/26/m...

TraCe Highlight Publication: The internationalization of intrastate conflict: A network perspective on empirical evidence and theoretical explanations, in Cooperation and Conflict, forthcoming

TraCe Highlight Publication: In this paper, TraCe researchers from Goethe University and PRIF introduce a network-based framework to conceptualize the internationalization of intrastate armed conflict. Empirically, they show that intrastate conflicts have indeed become more internationalized in recent years and identify and evaluate likely drivers of this trend. A preprint version of the forthcoming paper has been published as TraCe Working Paper No. 7.

TraCe Highlight Publication: Read more on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In @coco-journal.bsky.social, Frederik Schissler, @hannapfeifer.bsky.social, Constantin Ruhe, @reginesonja.bsky.social & Jonas Wolff take a closer look at the trend of internationalized intrastate armed conflicts.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Frieden trotz Trump? Stand und Zukunft des Russland-Ukraine-Kriegs an seinem vierten Jahrestag - PRIF BLOG Vor fast vier Jahren, am 24. Februar 2022, begann die russische Vollinvasion der Ukraine. Über diesen Zeitraum haben die USA diesen Krieg maßgeblich mitgeprägt. Unter Präsident Biden unterstützten sie...

Zum vierten Jahrestag der russischen Vollinvasion zieht Jonas J. Driedger Bilanz: Wie hat sich die zweite Amtszeit von Trump auf das Kriegsgeschehen ausgewirkt? Und welche Perspektiven gibt es im fünften Jahr für Frieden in der Ukraine? Jetzt auf dem #PRIFblog
blog.prif.org/2026/02/19/f...

Sharepic Highlight Publication: Armed Group Constellations: Patterns of Cooperation and Conflict in Multiparty Civil Wars.

Highlight Publication Sharepic: Internationalized multiparty civil wars are an increasingly relevant phenomenon, but we lack understanding of the internal dynamics of these conflicts. Based on in-depth field work of the Syrian conflict and case studies of Ethiopia and Myanmar, this book develops a new understanding of the complex relationships between rebel groups in multiparty civil wars that goes beyond binary notions of cooperation and conflict.

Highlight Publication Sharepic: read more on TraCe website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In her forthcoming monograph, @reginesonja.bsky.social takes a closer look at the complex relationships between rebel groups in multiparty civil wars.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Danica Trifunjagić

Welcome Danica Trifunjagić, our new TraCe Associate Fellow at @tuda.bsky.social @machtgeschichte.bsky.social! Danica explores the the inter­twining of social move­ments, culture, and political vio­lence, with a particular focus on the (post-)Yugoslav region.
👉 www.trace-center.de/en/about-us/...

Sharepic Highlight Publication: The Bombing of Hospitals and Rebel Responses in Civil War. Evidence from Syria.

Highlight Publication Sharepic: This publi­cation re­searches an in­creasingly pro­minent form of politi­cal vio­lence, the tar­geting of civilian infra­structure, and its effects on local vio­lence dy­namics. Con­cretely, the paper shows that the tar­geting of medical fa­cilities by pro-govern­ment forces in the Syrian civil war leads to in­creased rebel vio­lence rather than suppressing resis­tance.

Highlight Publication Sharepic: read more on our website

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In the Journal of Conflict Resolution, @reginesonja.bsky.social, Werner Krause & Samer Massoud show how targeting civilian infrastructure in Syria backfired and caused rebels to respond with increased violence.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Cover and citation of the Highlight Publication on Radical Climate Movements.

Description of the Highlight Publication on Radical Climate Movements.

Link to the highlight publications on the TraCe website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: Markus Lederer, Verena Lasso Mena, Jens Marquardt, Timo Richter & Dorothea Elena Schoppek (all @tuda.bsky.social) analyze the use of civil disobedience by radical climate movements & their attempted delegitimization.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Cover of TraCe Policy Brief No. 14: “From Genocide to Ecocide: Confronting Political Violence Against the Environment” by Verena Lasso Mena & Markus Lederer

🌎 Accountability for Ecocide?

In the new TraCe Policy Brief, Verena Lasso Mena & Markus Lederer (both @tuda.bsky.social) trace the emergence of the concept “ecocide” as a political and legal idea and discuss why it matters for policymakers today.

www.trace-center.de/publikatione...

Highlight Publication: Guntrum, Laura/Lasso Mena, Verena (2025): Un­masking digital threats in the pursuit of hu­man rights and environmental de­fense in La Guajira, North Colombia, in: In­formation, Communication & So­ciety, 1–22, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2503444.

Highlight Publication Forms: Change and Continuity of Political Violence: This ar­ticle shows how environ­mental and hu­man rights de­fenders in nor­thern Colom­bia are tar­geted by different forms of tech­nology-facili­tated violence (TFV) that inter­sects with phy­sical threats and struc­tural vio­lence. It ar­gues that ex­cluding TFV from broa­der violence frame­works leads to an incom­plete under­standing of de­fenders’ ex­periences and ex­poses gaps in existing pro­tection mecha­nisms.

Highlight Publication: Read more. All publication highlights can be found on our website.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights: In @icsjournal.bsky.social, Laura Guntrum & Verena Lasso Mena (both @tuda.bsky.social) analyze violence against environmental and human rights defenders in northern Colombia.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Cover TraCe Policy Brief No. 13 by Liudmyla Pidkuimukha

📚 Language as a tool of domination in the war against Ukraine? The new TraCe Policy Brief by Liudmyla Pidkuimukha shows how language & cultural symbols – central to the “Russian World” agenda – are used to dismantle Ukrainian identity.
🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...

Highlight Publication Sharepic: Laura Guntrum & Christian Reuter (2025). Activists’ Stra­tegies for Coping with Technology- Facilitated Vio­lence in the Global South. in: ACM Trans­actions on Computer-Human Inter­action (TOCHI), 32: 6, 1–38, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3762811

TraCe Highlight Publication Sharepic: This ar­ticle shows how acti­vists from seven coun­tries in the Global South develop situated coping and protection strate­gies in res­ponse to tech­nology-facili­tated vio­lence. Coping mechanisms and res­ponses ranged from self-censorship and with­drawal to various forms of resis­tance, in­cluding the adop­tion of selec­tive, low-threshold digital security practi­ces such as encryp­tion.

TraCe Highlight publication sharepic: Activists’ digital security beha­viors often di­verged from universa­lized IT security recommenda­tions, under­scoring the impor­tance of situa­ting protec­tion strate­gies within activists’ specific threat models and lived con­texts.

TraCe Highlight publication sharepic: read more on trace website with link.

📣 Explore the TraCe publication highlights on the change of forms, causes, and consequences of political violence.

In @acmtochi.bsky.social, Laura Guntrum & Christian Reuter (@peasec.de) analyze how activists cope with technology-facilitated violence.

🔗 www.trace-center.de/en/publicati...