{"id":20472,"date":"2025-09-15T13:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/?post_type=cu-people&p=20472"},"modified":"2025-09-15T13:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:57:23","slug":"christiane-wilke-2","status":"publish","type":"cu-people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/people\/christiane-wilke-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Christiane Wilke"},"content":{"rendered":"

On sabbatical: July 1, 2025 \u2013 June 30, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Current Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

My research examines how Western militaries and human rights organizations produce knowledge about and legal analyses of armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. I ask how different organizations see, count, and explain civilian casualties from airstrikes and how their assessments are shaped by imperial imaginaries about race and space. I inquire about the role of international law in structuring, constraining, facilitating, and legitimizing violence. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and critical law & technology scholarship, I ask how international law understands, regulates, and privileges technologically enhanced warfare. Having a better understanding of the connections between global hierarchies, imperial imaginaries, technologies of violence, and international law can help us make better informed choices in evaluating the role of international law in structuring armed conflict.<\/p>\n

This project is supported with a SSHRC Insight Grant (2020-2025).<\/p>\n

Teaching<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the undergraduate level, I enjoy teaching LAWS 3908 Approaches in Legal Studies II with a focus on socio-legal approaches to international law and armed conflict. Students in this course can work with primary sources I gathered in my own research. I also teach LAWS 4603 Transitional Justice, drawing on my research experience on transitional justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, and trials.<\/p>\n

At the graduate level, I teach LAWS 5000 (Theories of Law and Transformation) and LAWS 6000 (Doctoral Seminar in Legal Studies) with a focus on rethinking what counts as legal studies and theory and whose knowledges are included in the curriculum. Teaching non-specialized courses allows me to accompany students on their journey through different corners of legal studies and socio-legal theory.<\/p>\n

Supervisions<\/strong><\/p>\n

I supervise undergraduate and graduate students in the following areas:<\/p>\n