Adam Kochanski

About

Adam Kochanski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Ottawa, with a specialization in International Relations.

His research focuses on transitional justice, post-conflict peacebuilding, and norms in IR. His book project, Framing Atrocity: The Politics of Local Transitional Justice, explores the effects of domestic politics and local-national power dynamics on truth, justice, and reconciliation in communities recovering from armed conflict with empirical case studies of Cambodia and Mozambique. His current SSHRC-funded research project focuses on norm localization, examining how localactors adapt and translate global norms into local practice to support civilian self-protection in South Thailand and transitional justice effortsin Cambodia. It also explores how concretely local ideas and solutions circulate within Southeast Asia and the extent to which they reshape global policy and practice in ways that reflect a more localized approach.

His work has been published in Global Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Human Rights Review, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding. Numerous fellowships and external grants have supported his research, including from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, International Development Research Centre, and the International Studies Association.

He has held past appointments at Stanford University, McGill University, and the University of Basel, and has been a visiting researcher at UCLA and Goethe University Frankfurt.

Select Publications

• Kochanski, Adam, Emily K. M. Scott, and Jennifer Welsh. 2025. “Localization in World Politics: Bridging Theory and Practice.”Global Studies Quarterly 5 (1): ksaf023.

• Kochanski, Adam, Emily K. M. Scott, and Jennifer Welsh, eds. 2025. “Localization in World Politics.” Special forum, Global Studies Quarterly 5 (1).

• Kochanski, Adam. 2024. “Counterframing Truth? Interactions in Art and Justice in Post-Conflict Cambodia.”Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 18 (5): 555–77.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2023. “Truth Commissions.” In Research Handbook on Transitional Justice, edited by Cheryl Lawther and Luke Moffett, 247–62. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2022. “Locating the Short Circuit: Everyday Peace as a Conduit for Conflict Disruption.”International Studies Review 24 (3), viac031.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2021. “Framing, truth-telling, and the limits of local transitional justice.”Review of International Studies 47 (4): 468–88.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2021. “State (ir)responsibility and the (un)making of transformative reparations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.”Peacebuilding 9 (2): 129–44.

• Kochanski, Adam, and Joanna R. Quinn. 2021. “Letting the state off the hook? Dilemmas of holding the state to account in times of transition.”Peacebuilding 9 (2): 103–13.

• Kochanski, Adam, and Joanna R. Quinn, eds. 2021. “Letting the State off the Hook: The Role of Non-State Actors in Peace and Justice Provision.” Special issue, Peacebuilding 9 (2): 103–242.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2020. “The Missing Picture: Accounting for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence during Cambodia’s ‘Other’ Conflict Periods.”International Journal of Transitional Justice 14 (3): 504–23.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2020. “Mandating Truth: Patterns and Trends in Truth Commission Design.”Human Rights Review 21 (2): 113–37.

• Kochanski, Adam. 2020. “The ‘Local Turn’ in Transitional Justice: Curb the Enthusiasm.”International Studies Review 22 (1): 26–50.

Courses Taught

• POLS*1500 - World Politics
• POLS*3020 - International Law and Organizations
• POLS*3360 - Transitional Justice
• POLS*4020 - Global Law and Courts