JHI Award

November 23, 2016

Congratulations to Political Scientist Courtney Jung who has been awarded a Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) Research Fellowship (2017-2018). Research Fellows are University of Toronto tenured faculty members by the time of their fellowship, chosen for their distinction in achievements relative to their career stage, the excellence of their proposed project, and its relation to the annual theme which is Indelible Violence: Shame, Reconciliation, and the Work of Apology for 2017-2018.

Her project, entitled ‘Reconciliation is a Practice,’ theorises reconciliation not as a goal, but as a political practice for governing state-indigenous relations. Whereas states often view reconciliation as a transaction that discharges a debt — apology in exchange for absolution — she puts forward a concept of reconciliation as an ongoing relationship characterised primarily by state obligation. Although much of the work of reconciliation is symbolic, her research also examines the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline to explore the promise, and limits, of economic reconciliation.

Jung has written extensively about identity politics, state obligations toward minority populations, indigenous rights and politics, transitional justice, economic and social rights, and the politics of breastfeeding. She has conducted research in South Africa, Mexico, Northern Ireland, and the United States. She has received fellowships and awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Fulbright, and The Mellon Foundation.