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Ethnographies of Contentious Criminalization
Expansion, Ambivalence, and Marginalization

Carolijn Terwindt (The Netherlands)

Ph.D. Project

Carolijn Terwindt is writing her doctoral dissertation ‘ethnographies of contentious criminalization’ about criminalization processes in the Chilean-Mapuche territorial conflict, the Spanish-Basque separatist conflict, and the conflict about the use of animals and the earth in the US. While prosecutors assert their independence and the mandate to “simply” enforce the law, she describes the gradual politicization of the criminal justice arena as opposing actors implicated in the political struggle move into the criminal justice arena and make it subject to and the space of claim-making.

Research Interests and Goals

Conflict analysis, (de-)democratization processes, ethnicity, law and society, critical legal studies, criminology and criminal law.

Publications

(selection)
  • Terwindt, Carolijn: Were They Tortured or Did They Make That Up? Ethnographic reflections on torture allegations in the Basque Country in Spain in: Oñati Socio-Legal Series, No. 2, 2011 (peer reviewed)
    Academic literature about torture has addressed a wide range of questions. An important facet, however, has not yet received sufficient attention. Given that torture tends to occur in secrecy, how does the lack of information (that is perceived to be objective and authoritative) affect the societal response to allegations of torture and the social consequences of such allegations? In this article, the controversy about torture allegations in Spain is used to examine this issue and explore the insidious effects the uncertainty has on society. The Spanish state is unable to provide a generally accepted account in response to the continuous torture allegations from Basque prisoners accused of terrorism or street violence. Based on ethnographic research, this article describes how Spanish and Basque society can be divided in believers, non-believers and people who do not care about torture allegations. Because of the centrality of such allegations in many criminal cases, this division also polarizes public perceptions of the entire criminal justice system.
  • Terwindt, Carolijn: A Review of “The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics. Critical Liberalism and the Zapatistas”, by Courtney Jung in: Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. July 2010, Issue 3 & 4, pp.513-515
  • Borgh, van der, Chris / Carolijn Terwindt:In der Klemme. In: Welt-sichten, Mai 2010, Issue 5, pp.28-30.
    In zahlreichen Ländern kämpfen nichtstaatliche Organisationen zunehmend um ihren Handlungsspielraum. Die Schwierigkeiten, auf die vor allem Menschenrechtsaktivisten stoßen, unterscheiden sich jedoch erheblich je nach politischem Umfeld. Das Spektrum reicht von bürokratischen Hindernissen über Kriminalisierung bis hin zu Einschüchterungsversuchen und außergerichtlichen Tötungen.
  • Terwindt, Carolijn: The Demands of the "True" Mapuche: Ethnic Political Mobilization in the Mapuche Movement. In: Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2009, Issue/Volume 15/2, pp.237-257 (peer reviewed)
    To understand the role of ethnicity in ethnic political mobilization when there are no clear-cut ethnic groups, it is valuable to analyze the construction and interaction of different modalities of ethnicity. In the process of ethnic political mobilization in the Mapuche conflict, one can observe the importance of ethnic images as activists reject the dominant negative image of the Mapuche and advocate a more positive image of the “true” Mapuche. This prototype of the “true” Mapuche, however, does not necessarily correspond to the reality in which many Mapuches live. This article analyzes the strategies of Mapuche activists to deal with this gap between the two ethnic modalities.

Awards and scholarships

  • Scholarship Max Planck Institute for International and Foreign Criminal Law, Freiburg
  • Fellow at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati
  • DAAD research grant
  • Marie Curie Fellowship, HUMCRICON
  • Finkelstein Fellowship, Columbia Law School
  • Huygens Scholarships Talent Programme
  • Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Scholarship
  • Dr. Hendrik Muller Vaderlandsch Fund Scholarship
  • Nomination in 2005 for Publication of Excellent Theses of LL.M. Thesis, Utrecht University
  • H.J. Nieboer Award for best Master Thesis in Cultural Anthropology of 2004
  • Nomination 2004 thesis award Expertise center Latin America

Lectures

  • 7 November 2011

    Prosecution or Persecution? (De-)politicization in criminal trials in liberal democracies
    Guest lecture in a course on Transitional Justice

    Location: ELTE Law School, Budapest

  • 20 February 2011

    Do I Dare to Go Back to the United States?
    Post-fieldwork risks and challenges for researchers in conflict situations

    Location: Halle, Germany

  • 3 June 2010

    The Contentious Process of Criminal Prosecutions in the Chilean-Mapuche Land Conflict
    International Conference of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

    Location: Marrakesh, Morocco

  • 5 May 2010

    Protesters as terrorists? (Ab)use of anti-terrorism legislation

    Location: Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg

  • 22 April 2010

    Prisoner Support Mobilization: the interpretive battle in the criminal cases of Basque militants, Mapuche activists and US eco-activists
    Protest and Politics Workshop, City University of New York

    Location: CUNY, New York

  • 17 February 2010

    Prosecution on the Edge of Escalation. Departing De-politicization, Regaining Legitimacy?
    Winter University REMEP

    Location: Husseren-les-Châteaux, Alsace/France

  • 26 January 2010

    Ethics, Conflict, and Fieldwork

    Location: International Institute for Sociology of Law in Oñati

  • 20 October 2009

    Pascual Pichún: hero or terrorist?
    Criminalization of contentious action and its contestation: the case of the Mapuche-Chilean land conflict.

    Location: MPI Freiburg, 20 October 2009

  • November 2008

    The Use of the Criminal Justice System in the Basque Conflict
    Protest and Politics Workshop at the City University of New York

    Location: CUNY, New York

  • October 2007

    The Relevance of the Construction of Ethnicity: the Gap between Different Ethnic Modalities in the 'Mapuche Conflict' in Chile
    Contentious Politics Workshop at Columbia University

    Location: Columbia University

  • January 2007

    Participant Observation as an Ethnographic Method
    Guest Lecture in Course on Public Interest Lawyering

    Location: Columbia Law School, New York

Curriculum vitae

Since August 2009 Member of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (IMPRS REMEP) at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg i.Br., Germany
June 2009 - May 2010 Researcher, Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University, Research on shrinking operational space of NGOs. Case studies in Indonesia and the Philippines.
September 2006 - present JSD Candidate, Columbia Law School
September 2006 - February 2008 Master of Laws (LL.M.), Columbia Law School, Thesis: The Revolution of Al Qaeda. War or Crime, Is That the Right Question?
August 2005 - November 2005 Clerkship, International Criminal Court, The Hague
July 2005 - present Lecturer, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Summer Program International School for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam
May 2004 - June 2006 Founder and president, Stichting StadsSpelen, organization of Urban Olympic Games, Amsterdam
September 2004 - June 2006 Junior Lecturer, Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University
December 2004 Master of Laws (LL.M.), with distinction, Criminal Law and Criminology, Utrecht University
August 2004 Master of Science, Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University
2002 - present Various socio-political activities I worked with asylum seekers, migrants, challenged youth, and victims of police abuse. On other occasions I volunteered in the documentation of protest policing, in the organization of a conference on solidary economy, and I attended several European Social Forums. I was also involved with organizations such as the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International, and the Red Cross.
May 2000 - May 2001 Full time board member AIESEC Utrecht, Coordinator of the outgoing exchange program