Forensic Human Rights Intervention, Cosmology, and Justice in Uganda

With pilot research beginning in 2011, Dr. Kim and her research partners have spent over a decade conducting ethnographic research in Uganda, and to a lesser extent in Tanzania. The research team has worked with diverse stakeholders (e.g., rural community members, government officials, nonprofit organizations, scientists) of various ethnic groups to analyze advantages and disadvantages to mass forensic identification, perspectives on treatment of the dead, and interpretations of justice. Site mapping, forensic capacity-building training, and workshops have been conducted with interested groups.

Principal Investigators:

• Dr. Tricia Redeker Hepner, Arizona State University

• Dr. Jaymelee Kim, University of Findlay

• Dr. Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, University of Tennessee

• Ms. Julia Hanebrink, Rhodes College

• Mr. Hugh Tuller, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

PROJECT-RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Hepner, T.R., & Kim, J.J. (In Prep). Rethinking Survivor-centered Justice: Forensic science and cosmology in Uganda. Target Submission: December 2023.

Kim, J., & Elgerud, L.M.M.K. (In Review). One of Us or One of Them: The Pervasiveness of Forensic Ancestry Knowledge Production.

Hepner, T.R., & Steadman, D. W. (2023). Bedeviling binaries: an integrated and dialectical approach to forensic anthropology in northern Uganda. Anthropology of Violent Death: Theoretical Foundations for Forensic Humanitarian Action, 327-350.

Kim, J., Elgerud, L., & Tuller, H. (2022). Gaining community entry with survivors for forensic human rights and humanitarian intervention. Forensic Sciences Research, 7(3), 346-357.

Elgerud, L. M., & Kim, J. J. (2021). Mapping the intangible: forensic human rights documentation in post-conflict Uganda. The International Journal of Human Rights, 25(4), 594-615.

Kim, J. J., Elgerud, L., & Tuller, H. (2020). Forensic archaeology and anthropology sensitization in post-conflict Uganda. Forensic Science International, 306, 110062.

Hepner, T. R. (2020). At the boundaries of life and death: notes on Eritrea and Northern Uganda. African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review, 10(1), 127-142.

Kim, J., & Hepner, T. R. (2019). Of justice and the grave: the role of the dead in post-conflict Uganda. International Criminal Law Review, 19(5), 819-843.

Hepner, T. R., Steadman, D. W., Hanebrink, J. R., Anderson, C. P., & Martin, D. L. (2018). Sowing the dead. Massacres: bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology approaches. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida.

Tuller, H. (2018). Translating forensic science in northern Uganda. Practicing Anthropology, 40(2), 6-10.

Kim, J. J. (2018). An alternative approach to forensic anthropology: findings from Northern Uganda. African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review, 8(1), 29-53.

PROJECT-RELATED POSTERS

2022 POSTER: Kim, Jaymelee J., Tricia Redeker Hepner, Julia Hanebrink, Hugh Tuller, and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman. Cultural Relativity and the Bounds of Forensic Interventions: A Case Study in Uganda. American Academy of Forensic Sciences Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center Poster Symposium, 02/21-02/25.

2021 POSTER: Kim, Jaymelee J., Joan Baughman, Julia Hanebrink, Hugh Tuller, Paul Emanovsky, and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman. Forensic Biology Capacity Building Challenges and Opportunities in northern Uganda. American Academy of Forensic Sciences Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center Poster Symposium, 02/15-02/19.

2021 POSTER: Hanebrink, Julia, Jaymelee J. Kim, Hugh Tuller, Tricia Redeker Hepner, Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, and Paul Emanovsky. Multisector Collaborations for Transitional Justice in Uganda. American Academy of Forensic Sciences Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center Poster Symposium, 02/15-02/19.

2020 POSTER: Tuller, Hugh, Jaymelee J. Kim, Paul Emanovsky, and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman. Forensic Science Capacity Building in Northern Uganda, 72nd American Academy of Forensic Sciences Annual Meeting, 02/16-18, Anaheim CA.

FUNDERS