This ethnographic research project examines the measuring of harm and quantification of injury and loss in attempts to repair and reconcile historical wrongs. The project is concerned with the forced migration of persons and groups in colonial and postcolonial situations, with a particular focus on “child welfare” policies which removed children from their families for resettlement, institutional care, or adoption. By studying the afterlife of these histories of displacement, the project explores the possibilities of redressing them through transitional and restorative justice. It seeks to understand the significance of politics of repair in modern, liberal societies and how it might benefit ongoing struggles for justice. Its principal question is how apologizing and compensating for historical injustice is motivated and justified politically, what social relationships and classifications are generated in the process, and what kinds of repair might benefit the victims' future life.

2025

2029