Professor Kirsten Ainley
Director of the ANU Coral Bell School
Kirsten Ainley is a Professor of International Relations and the Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU). Kirsten is a feminist scholar of international relations who works on gender and justice in conflict-affected states. She is Co-Director of the ANU Architectures for Peace Lab, working on the intersection of material environments and peace processes, and Co-Chief Investigator of the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub. The Hub is a research consortium working at the overlap of Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality, Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, and the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Kirsten has published extensively on transitional justice and international criminal justice, including as co-author of the Dakar Guidelines on the Establishment of Hybrid Courts (2019), and of Gender, Justice and Security: Structural Challenges, Feminist Innovations and Radical Futures (2024). She is also co-editor of Hybrid Justice: Innovation and Impact in the Prosecution of Atrocity Crimes (Oxford University Press, 2024).