Emma Murphy

Biography

Emma Murphy is assistant professor of modern Ireland and peace studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliated faculty at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

Murphy earned her doctorate in politics and international relations from University College Dublin, where she was an Irish Research Council Laureate Award-affiliated fellow. Her doctoral research focused on identifying and understanding an alternative to liberal approaches in transitional justice design in Colombia, Northern Ireland and Uganda. This alternative, agonistic transitional justice centers on creating avenues within transitional justice institutions for engaging in contestation and encouraging multiplicity rather than focusing on consensus in the post-conflict space. She holds a master of philosophy in politics and international relations from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor of arts in politics and East Asian studies from Mount Holyoke College.

Murphy's work has been published in peer-reviewed outlets including International Political Science Review, Cooperation and Conflict and Peacebuilding. Her book, "Agonistic Transitional Justice and the Pursuit of Post-liberal Peace: Beyond One Single Truth," is forthcoming with Bristol University Press. Murphy previously served as a teaching fellow at University College Dublin, where she taught courses on egalitarian theory and transitional justice. She also has held a postdoctoral position with the Clingen Family Center for the Study of Modern Ireland in the Keough School's Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and also the Peace Accords Matrix at the school's Kroc Institute for International Studies. As part of this work she supported the Legacy Project, which preserves and engages the digital archive of the Colombian Truth Commission to explore the lessons the Colombian peace process holds for Ireland.

Recent Work

• "Gender quota adoption for commissions in post-conflict societies" (International Political Science Review)
• "Moving beyond binary identities in transitional justice: recognising the complexity of agency in agonistic spaces" (International Journal of Human Rights)
• "Independent commission design and inclusion in Northern Ireland: agonistic versus traditional approaches" (International Political Science Review)
• "Gender as an analytic lens for agonistic peace: insights from the Colombian truth commission" (Peacebuilding)

Courses

• Research Design for Global Affairs (undergraduate course for global affairs major)