Truth Commissions and Transitional Justice in the United States

This project began with my work as a Research Fellow with the International Justice Lab (IJL) my first year of undergraduate. I started with compiling data to understand the most prominent case of US truth commission–the Commmittee on Wartime Relocation Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). From there, the project expanded and Dr. Kelebogile Zvobgo and I published the paper “Democratizing Truth” in the International Journal of Transitional Justice in 2021. In that paper, we introduced a dataset of past, present, and proposed truth commissions in the United States, an under-studied area.

That paper laid the groundwork for continued study of US Truth Commission. Working with the Sharp Fellowship Program at William & Mary, I had the opportunity to publish an article focusing on the Iowa City Truth Commission with the Pulitzer Center.

Now, Dr. Zvobgo, Zoha Siddiqui, and I are working on a project examining the processes of truth commission adoption in the US, in particular the role of public opinion in shaping truth commission adoption and design. We’re working on updating the dataset introduced in “Democratizing Truth” and building the first comprehensive dataset on US truth commission mandates.

I want to thank Dr. Zvobgo for the opportunity to work in the International Justice Lab, and for her continued mentor and guidance throughout my academic career. I also want to thank my co-author Zoha Siddiqui for her continued efforts on our current project.