Michelle Parlevliet

Next week, 27 May, is the day Chandra would have turned 49. She’s often been in my mind in the past 1.5 years and even more so in recent days with her birthday coming up. In previous years this would always have been an opportunity to touch base with her. Not that an occasion would ever be required to connect with Chandra – it’s just that our contact was irregular, ranging from the very frequent to months going by before we reconnected again. There were several times in the year that contact was a given – her birthday being one of them and the 4x per year I travelled to London for meetings.

It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by since she passed away. After meeting professionally in New York in the late 1990s/early 2000s, we gradually became friends – bonding over shared interests, good food, brilliant wine. Even so I looked up to her and benefited from her support and encouragement when I moved from my practitioner world into the world of academia where she was so firmly and rightfully established – and from where she so firmly and usefully linked to policy and practice. She brought so much to the world – passion, humanity, such sharp thinking, innovative ideas, willingness to ask difficult questions, humor.

I miss you, Chandra. There are so many times I wish I could bounce something off you, briefly check in, pick your brain, hear what you’re up to, see if we can concoct a joint effort. My trips to London are tinged with some sadness these days as I know I won’t be able to hang out with you anymore. It was a terrible shock to lose you so suddenly in September 2018 and you continue to live in my heart, mind and bookcase for as long as I am around.

 

Dedicated to Chandra: Transitional Justice in Comparative Perspective

From a new edited volume on transitional justice:

This volume is dedicated to our friend and colleague Chandra Lekha Sriram, who passed away in the middle of this project. Her work informed so much of the field. She is missed.

—Samar El-Masri, Tammy Lambert and Joanna R. Quinn, eds. Transitional Justice in Comparative Perspective: Preconditions for Success. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

In Memoriam, LSE, 22 October 2019

London Transitional Justice Network Event

In Memoriam: Chandra Lekha Sriram

Date/Time: Tuesday, 22 October, 18:30-20:00

Venue: 32L.G.03, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London School of Economics

Speakers: Julie Broome, Rachel Kerr, Olga Martin-Ortega, Ruti Teitel, Ralph Wilde

Chair: Iavor Rangelov

This event will remember the life and work of Chandra Lekha Sriram (1971-2018) and discuss her contributions to the study and practice of human rights, international law, transitional justice and peacebuilding.

  • Julie Broome is Director of the Ariadne Network of European Funders for Social Change and Human Rights.
  • Rachel Kerr is Reader in International Relations and Contemporary War at King’s College London.
  • Olga Martin-Ortega is Professor of Public International Law at Greenwich University.
  • Ruti Teitel is the Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School.
  • Ralph Wilde is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Laws, University College London.
  • Iavor Rangelov is Research Fellow at the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit, London School of Economics.

LSE campus map: https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-information/Campus-Map

Wish we could cook like Chandra

Stephanie, Mira, and Michael came up with the idea to remember Chandra through her fabulous cooking and hospitality. So Steph sent out this email:

Dear foodie friends of (La)Chandra,

We are all grieving right now. It’s hard to know what to do. But cooking some of Cha’s favorite foods feels right. And it also feels right to share recipes with one another.

Mira, Michael (aka Phoophey), and I would like to create a cookbook of Chandra’s signature recipes to share. As friends who enjoyed her extraordinarily generous hospitality and culinary sophistication, we’d like to preserve the dishes, menus, and photos that remind us of the outrageous dinners we shared over the years in many different cities.  

Mira has volunteered to collate and assemble the cookbook for self-publication: please email her the distinctive recipes that remind you most of Chandra with appropriate bibliographic citation if published (or links if your recipe is available online) with a few lines about why this recipe reminds you of Chandra. When did you cook this dish together?  What country?  Who else was there? 

Some of us enjoyed her glamorous table without being cooks ourselves. Please feel free to send any dining-themed photographs with Chandra, including the date (if known), a description of the occasion or a remembrance of your friendship with Chandra.

Chandra Cooks (2019) is the result of the collaboration and photos from friends and family. A complete preview of the cookbook is available here in PDF format. If you’d like to order a hard-bound copy of your own, please follow this link.  (If you do not have a Shutterfly account, the site will prompt you to create one.)

We hope you will feel Chandra’s presence through her words and recipes, and the memories and photos from all the friends she gathered.

Richard Falk

I knew Chandra originally as a graduate student at Princeton where I worked with her as she completed an imaginative and innovative dissertation. I always thought of Chandra as young, emergent, dedicated, energetic, warm, and compassionate, a true and genuine champion of human rights. We only met briefly in recent years, and I always believed that soon she would be deservedly globally recognized as a distinguished scholar of human rights and a person who could lead and organize likeminded others.

In fact, a couple of years ago, our last real contact, I brought stress and distress into Chrandra’s life, of course, unintentionally. She had invited me to do a lecture at the University of East London, I agreed, but higher powers intervened and the lecture was cancelled due to exaggerated administrative fears of disruption. We were both disappointed, and Chandra remained determined to make it happen, and it is my sadness that because of logistical problems, mainly on my side, it never did. No one anticipated this untimely early death, and had I done so, I would made these problems disappear overnight.

We are right to grieve the loss of anyone with a warm heart, clear head, and compassionate spirit. Chandra was such a person. I grieve her death with sadness while remembering the joy and meaning that she brought to life.

Richard Falk

Chandra Sriram Early Career Fellowship

In honour of Chandra Sriram’s lifetime work on peace and justice, the Dialogue Advisory Group (DAG) is hosting Adriana Rincón Villegas for a one month fellowship in its office in Amsterdam. Adriana is a doctoral candidate in Global Governance & Human Security at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston and a Visiting Fellow of the Latin American Research Centre at the University of Calgary.

Adriana is currently completing her dissertation, “The Gender of Peace: Law, Discourse, and Power in Colombia” in the Department of Global Governance and Human Security at UMass, Boston. A native of Colombia, Adriana aims to identify the gender assumptions, roles, and identities embedded in the language of three institutional peace notions in Colombia: peace as national security (1958-1982), peace as a constitutional right (1991) and territorial peace (2016). Drawing from de-colonial feminism, critical approaches to law, and critical peace studies, and influenced by Sriram, Adriana’s work addresses the contested, contradictory, and disparate meanings of peace, and the gendered assumptions embedded in them.

As the Chandra Sriram Early Career Fellow, Adriana will partake in the upcoming Amsterdam Dialogue conference. The Amsterdam Dialogue is a high-level conference on peace and justice in situations of violent conflict. Organised by DAG in partnership with Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group, the conference brings together peace mediators, human rights advocates and senior officials, including the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Bringing together mediators and human rights advocates provides participants with a closed-door forum to bridge differences, deepen understanding, and strengthen cooperation on peace and justice issues. Adriana will have the opportunity to engage with high-level participants working in peace and justice issues across the globe. Following the conference, Adriana will support DAG in assessing the outcomes of the conference and compiling an analytical report on the substance of the conference.

For more information about DAG or the Amsterdam Dialogue please visit our websites:

www.dialogueadvisorygroup.org

www.amsterdamdialogue.org

Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm

I was not terribly close with Chandra, but I missed her this week at ISA and the panel prompted me to reflect more upon our relationship.

Her scholarship was first rate. She was sharp of intellect and of wit, so, when there was a need for someone to join a project who would challenge assumptions and methods, she was the first to come to mind.

I’ve known her for at least a decade; I actually don’t recall when or how we first met. As a young scholar, I found her quite intimidating. One of my earliest memories is many years ago when we had a conversation on a minibus in Bergen. We talked about book publishing and our research. I still remember feeling like her genuine interest in my perspectives was a sign that I belonged in academia.

Over the ensuing years, we were involved on a few larger research projects together over the years. I was invited to a couple of her ISA dinners. She was a great mentor, offering advice and to write letters of support. These were characteristic of her generosity of spirit.

We spent the most time together in the last two years of her life as part of the Justice, Conflict and Development Network. I wish I had been able to enjoy her friendship for longer, but I’m grateful for the time I had.

Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm

Bethany Barratt

After almost 6 months, I still don’t feel ready to write this, because I find it so hard to believe Chandra is gone. While we met because of the human rights scholarly community, most of the bases on which our friendship grew were unrelated to scholarship. In fact, Chandra was  passionate and knowledgeable on so many fronts that when introducing her to friends I would sometimes forget for a moment how we met! 

I was particularly in awe of her ability to hold people (including me) accountable and show them deep love at the same time.

Just as ISA feels odd without a Chandra-initiated outing, it will be a long time before I can be in London without the impulse to text her, knowing she will plot a devastatingly fabulous adventure somewhere I never would have found myself, and that we’ll pick up on every front as though no time had passed.

My acquaintance with Chandra felt like being befriended by a force of nature. She expanded my sense of what was possible on countless fronts, and for that I will be forever thankful.

Bethany Barratt

ISA Chandra Sriram Memorial Panel, March 28, 2019

When: Thursday, March 28, 1:45 PM – 3:30 PM

Where:Churchill, Sheraton Centre Toronto

Chandra Sriram Memorial Panel

Participants

  • Chair: Dave Benjamin (University of Bridgeport)
  • Participant: Mark A. Drumbl (Washington and Lee University)
  • Participant: Alison Brysk (University of California Santa Barbara)
  • Participant: Kurt Mills (University of Dundee)
  • Participant: Olga Martin-Ortega (University of East London)

Mark Ilsemann

I didn’t know Chandra well. Our paths crossed briefly in the early 2000s – the first time I saw her, she was walking into Princeton’s Firestone Library, like some kind of apparition. She was so… THERE, if you know what I mean. We had common friends, and I came to frequent the house she was living in at the time, in Brooklyn. I remember sitting in the kitchen, leafing through a book about NY while she was preparing one of her fabulous dinners. I remember having drinks at… was it Jacques Brasserie, off Third Ave? I think it was. Memories are fickle things. She had her own mythology – the way she talked about strangers on the subway… it was hilarious. No, we certainly weren’t friends; I suspect she didn’t like me very much. I’m shaken by her death, I truly am. Maybe it’s a selfish thing, I don’t know – maybe it’s just my own nostalgia, since those were good times. But even so, are there “good” and “bad” reasons to think of someone? I’m thinking of her, and I’m sad. I know she was there, and she had an impact on my life, no matter how small. Now she’s gone, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Darcy Pollard

I am a current junior at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and focus my studies on international human rights law. I recently realized that I had several texts on the subject that Dr. Sriram had written. After googling her I was surprised to find that she had also attended SRC and studied the same thing. Based on the website and her writings she sounds like an incredible person. Her work has really inspired me.

I’m not sure if this qualifies as a testimonial since I never met her, but her work has had its impact, in a serendipitous way too.

Thank you for maintaining this website, 

Darcy Pollard 

University of East London

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Professor Chandra Sriram.

She first joined UEL in 2005 as Professor of Human Rights at UEL School of Law, having completed her doctorate from Princeton University and having taught at St Andrews University. In 2006, she set up the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict (CHRC), which she directed with great dynamism, making UEL a centre of excellence in the field of Human Rights and Transitional Justice. She left the University in 2010 to join SOAS School of Law, returning to UEL in 2013 as Professor of International Law and International Relations.

Through the CHRC, Professor Sriram was involved in many projects on transitional justice around the world, including important contributions in Sierra Leone, Kenya, Sudan, Colombia and Sri Lanka. These included major projects funded by the European Union, ESRC, British Academy and the US Institute for Peace. 

Professor Sriram published widely in the field of conflict resolution and transitional justice, authoring or editing some ten books, including a significant monograph on “Peace as Governance: Power-Sharing, Armed Groups and Contemporary Peace Negotiations” (Palgrave, 2008).

At UEL, she developed LLM Courses such as War and Human Rights and supervised numerous PhD students. Her presence at UEL attracted many prominent Human Rights scholars, activists and experts to the University as members of staff, as guest speakers and as research collaborators.

Her international outlook and commitment to Human Rights research made a profound impact on those around her and on the university in general. Her unexpected death at a young age is a great loss of a close colleague and an excellent scholar. 

Source: https://www.uel.ac.uk/research/the-centre-on-human-rights-in-conflict/prof-chandra-sriram

SOAS School of Law

In memoriam: Chandra Lekha Sriram

10 October 2018

SOAS School of Law is saddened by the news of the sudden passing away of Professor Chandra Lekha Sriram. Chandra joined SOAS School of Law in 2011 before returning to the University of East London in 2013. Chandra was an energetic and gifted scholar whose interdisciplinary work on peace-building, transitional justice, international criminal law, and human rights is widely recognised. She leaves a rich legacy and we remember her fondly as a highly dedicated colleague who was passionate about her work. During her brief time at SOAS, Chandra was awarded a three-year ESRC grant to work on transitional justice and democratic institution building. She made a number of contributions to our research culture – we continue to produce the School of Law Research Newsletter which Chandra began and our now established annual PhD Colloquium has its roots in the doctoral research seminar series that she introduced. Chandra also encouraged her colleagues to form research development groups for the mutual discussion of our research. After she left she continued to supervise the work of one of our PhD students, Demetra Loizou. We offer our condolences to Chandra’s family members.

Source: https://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem136358.html

OSCE ‘Transitional Justice Autumn School’ for young researchers in Tirana, Albania

From 25-30 November 2018 we dedicated the OSCE ‘Transitional Justice Autumn School’ for young researchers in Tirana, Albania, in memoriam to Chandra.

Chandra and I had been jointly designing this seminar over the summer and she was very enthusiastic about it, as with all the work she liked to do in the area of Transitional Justice.

We all missed her, I missed her… but her spirit and ideas for this School have been with us during the whole week.  This is to you, Chandra!

Greetings from all of us & Anja Mihr

Chandra Sriram Human Rights Section Global South Travel Grant

The Human Rights Section of ISA invites applications for the first annual Chandra Sriram Human Rights Section Global South Travel Grant. This is a competitive grant based on merit and need intended to assist scholars with accepted papers at ISA 2019 with expenses related to attending the convention in Toronto. Applicants must be members of the Human Rights Section and be working or studying at an academic or policy institution in the Global South. We define “Global South” as defined by the ISA Global South Caucus Charter, Art. 4, section 5ai, which includes: Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East/North Africa and developing Eurasia.

We welcome applications from students, faculty and practitioners. We particularly welcome applications from graduate students and/or early career scholars. The selection committee reserves the right to award more than one grant in a given year, or not to award a grant if no suitable applications are received.

To apply please submit the following as a single pdf attachment:

  • Name, title, institutional affiliation and contact information
  • CV
  • Accepted abstract for ISA 2019
  • 300 word statement addressing the following:
    • How will this award enhance your research or career trajectory?
    • Have you applied for an ISA Travel Grant?
    • Describe your efforts to secure support from your home institution and external grant support
    • Indicate how much financial support you are requesting (up to a maximum of $500)

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

All application materials should be e-mailed in one file directly to the chair of the Grant Committee, Dr. Bethany Barratt, before midnight Eastern time on December 10, 2018. The committee will make its decision as soon as possible and the awardee will be informed of their award on or before January 30, 2018.

 

Source: https://www.isanet.org/Programs/Awards/Sriram-HR-Grant

On Celebrating Chandra’s Too-Short Life (Jo Spear)

This weekend a number of us gathered in London to celebrate Chandra. There was a poignant boat ride to scatter her ashes, which others can talk about, and a gathering of celebration on Sunday. As we are all list-consumers nowadays, here is mine from that event:

  1. Carolyn (aka Cha Mommy) was amazing

Now we know where Chandra got her strength from. Carolyn was brave, cheerful, charming and funny. What a role model! And she wears a sparkle well!

  1. Chandra’s friends/family all loved her with a passion

Chandra had a big impact on us all – from expanding our food palates to guiding our approaches to Research Ethics to showing us how to be a good mentor. She taught by example across the span of her activities. Funnily enough though, no one said they had been influenced by her distinct fashion choices…

  1. Chandra seems to have been mellowing

Despite her loudly and oft stated dislike of children, she was bringing presents for the kids of her dear friends and even agreeing to be in the same room as their progeny. This was a shocker!

  1. I have never been to a life celebration featuring a Drag Queen act before

This was probably true for most everyone in the room (please tell us more if that was not the case…) Watching Johnny Woo – knowing that Chandra appreciated her so much – was a real treat! And she worked the room so well, supported Carolyn, made us all laugh, and got everyone dancing. A Class Act.

  1. The celebration drew lovely friends from far and wide – Singapore, America, Continental Europe and elsewhere

What an international gathering we were! Others who could not make it sent messages or were acknowledged. We all made new friends that night; and connected some gossip!!

  1. The friends who organized the evening were amazing

They knew what Chandra deserved and we all needed and gave us the space to laugh, cry, remember, understand. They deserve our profound thanks.

  1. As we are in an age of (millennial) self-realization…

I admit I can never be as fine a person as Chandra (or wear heels as high as Johnny Woo). We are all both broken and comforted by the celebration of Chandra’s too-short life.

Jo Spear

Diamond Ashiagbor

I first met Chandra in October 2010, on our first day as new members of staff at SOAS, University of London – together with Amanda Perry-Kessaris. The three of us immediately bonded over the slightly haphazard induction to a new workplace, and Chandra continued to provide droll commentary on the ups and downs of working at SOAS. She was a firm and principled colleague – and a great companion to share cocktails with. Reading the other testimonials reinforces my sense of Chandra’s capacity for deep and sustained friendships, and also how committed she was to supporting – and bringing the best out in – others’ research.

Amanda and I have had an exotic cocktail in Chandra’s honour and memory, which we hope she would approve.

Diamond Ashiagbor

Phil Clark

Chandra was one of the most giving people I ever worked with – always keen to read a draft, organise a panel, involve you in a grant application, assemble an edited collection – thankless roles that benefited others. She was generous and gregarious – always in the thick of the action (long after the conference had ended and the real conversations started in some dingy bar in Nairobi, Sarajevo or east London). Her warmth and zest and love of community will be massively missed. 

Phil Clark

Elizabeth Letcher

I met Chandra in our very first days of law school. I was part of a nerdy group of young women, who took law school and the politics of law school and, for me, awakening into a new kind of academic experience very, very seriously. Chandra moved on the edges of our little clan, standing out for many reasons. It wasn’t just the crazy hair or velvet purses or the scandalous leggings that said “f—k” all over them, worn to seminars taught by storied old men. It wasn’t just that she was so young (I remember after our final first-semester exam, we couldn’t go to a bar for drinks; Chandra may have already had a master’s from Chicago, but she wasn’t yet old enough to drink legally). What made her stand out most was that while she was serious, she didn’t take the crazy, artificial self-importance of law school seriously. She was going to engage with it on her own terms, and call bullshit when she saw it.

I love that about her. I think one facet of her bullshit intolerance became her complaining shtick, one she elevated to near high-art stand-up comedy. Another was channeled into battles with academic bureaucracy. But most was channeled into her work. It didn’t feel from the outside like a passion so much as an innate drive to do the work she was doing. I simply can’t imagine her doing anything else.

I’m still haven’t fully absorbed that she’s gone. I’ll miss the wonderful conversations, hearing about her impossibly life-absorbing work. I’ll miss visiting her in London, where she always took such wonderful care of me: took me to the best food shopping, the latest restaurants, cooking together for and with her always-amazing friends (Wayne, remember that meal so beautiful we photographed it, years before that was a thing?) the nights out. I never felt so cosmopolitan as when I was with her.

Her intensity. Her silliness and irreverence. The eyebrow arched over the rim of the martini glass. I will miss her so, once her departure becomes real to me.

Elizabeth

Editorial Board of Peacebuilding

The Editorial Board of Peacebuilding is very saddened by the passing of Chandra Lekha Sriram. Chandra was a much valued colleague, contributor, and friend to many of us and always impressed with her academic brilliance. She will be greatly missed professionally and personally.

Dorina Bekoe

I am stunned to learn of Chandra’s sudden passing. I got to know her when we both worked at the International Peace Institute. At the time, I was a newly minted Ph.D. Chandra’s already-growing list of accomplishments were inspiring. At the same time, she was generous with her time and insight. Her contributions to human rights, transitional justice, and peacebuilding are lasting legacies. She will be sorely missed.

Dorina Bekoe

Alison Brysk

Chandra was a trailblazing scholar, a tireless and generous colleague, and an inspiration to the academic and human rights community – but she was so much more. I cannot remember the year, but she introduced herself to me some time in the early 2000’s at an ISA conference, and from then on, she became one of my global tribe of soul-sisters. Over almost two decades, we organized panels, visited each others’ workshops, and from time to time had transformative conversations (usually Skype but sometimes over glorious dinners) about life, love, and learning. I felt honored to be included in her rolling transnational salon of ISA meet-ups, and came to know her circle of talented collaborators. Chandra had an esprit, a consciousness, and a way of walking in the world that illuminated us all. She was a presence. The last time I saw her, this past spring, she was hosting cocktails at the Redwood Room, and that is how I will remember her – raising a glass to the republic of letters.

Alison Brysk

Keegan Le Sage

I am truly saddened to hear that Chandra has passed away. Chandra was an amazing mentor for women; a woman other women could look up to – so kind, so smart, so wise; she had achieved so much but was down to earth and humble, and in a world in which we currently live this is a loss which can genuinely be felt.

My thoughts are with Chandra’s family, her friends, and anyone who had been graced with Chandra’s bright and cheery presence.

Keegan

Harvey Weinstein

I am stunned at this news. Chandra was an important colleague in the development of our International TJ Workshop devoted to bringing academics and activists from the Global North and South together to explore the issues of power and powerlessness. Her critical insights and enthusiasm for the work made working with her a joy. She was smart, funny and always engaged. Her contributions to the development of transitional justice as a field were many and important. What an incredible loss! My sympathies to her family and all who loved her.

Harvey Weinstein

Demetra Loizou

Chandra was a beacon of light, reason, calmness and humour during my PhD studies. I remember meeting her back in 2011. I entered SOAS for the first time, both anxious and excited that I was about to meet my PhD supervisor. And I remember even more clearly how calm and reassured and even more excited about my PhD I felt after our first meeting. I regret that I didn’t tell her when I had the chance how much I appreciated her as a person, an academic, a researcher, a supervisor and as an advisor during my PhD and beyond… Words are too poor to express the loss to her family and friends in academia and beyond.

Demetra Loizou