Respectively addressing the ICRC’s archives and institutional memory; post-conflict narratives in Rwandan textbooks; transitional justice in the South Korea–Japan “comfort women” dispute; and the historical rise of the Swiss National Bank’s influence, the four prize-winning papers illustrate the rich diversity of subjects explored by our students:
ANSO Department prize
How should we understand the politics and practice of record-keeping in a humanitarian institution? What institutional dynamics does the operation of an archive reflect? Disrupting the assumption that archives are static spaces, Sanjna Girish Yechareddy explores how archives (defined as both the site and material) are entangled in the operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). By attempting to analyse the archive as an entity through sources it holds about its creation, interviews with archivists and staff at the ICRC and observation in archival spaces, this paper illustrates the possibilities of an ethnographic approach to archival politics.
Girish Yechareddy, Sanjna. Navigating the Archival Archipelago: Politics of Record-Keeping at the ICRC. Graduate Institute ePaper 57, Graduate Institute Publications, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4000/13lz3.
2024 NORRAG Prize in Comparative and International Education
Jessica Peery Viggers explores how societies influence historical memory of conflict through formal education. Focusing on Rwanda, she analyses recent secondary school history textbooks to identify elements that support or undermine peacebuilding efforts. She finds that the same narrative or set of narratives about a conflict can contain both elements. Therefore, when decision makers balance needs for what educational materials should achieve, including requirements that may limit the efficacy of peacebuilding efforts, international advisors should be knowledgeable of and sensitive to these needs in order to identify solutions that minimise negative impacts on reconciliation.
Peery Viggers, Jessica. War of the Words: How Post-conflict Narratives in History Textbooks Impact Peacebuilding Efforts. Graduate Institute ePaper 56, Graduate Institute Publications, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4000/13azb.
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2024 Geneva-Asia Association Prize
How can measures of transitional justice (TJ) contribute to diplomatic reconciliation? Focussing on the Korean “comfort women” dispute case, Maira Cardillo analyses its impact on relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. Using a sociological and historical perspective, she shows through this case study how TJ can transcend its traditional definitions and be adapted in diverse contexts for various scopes. Her research challenges and reinterprets the current literature on TJ by extending its normative purposes beyond conflict prevention and democratisation, demonstrating the enormous potential of TJ to be remodelled to non-transitioning and non-conflicting contexts that have yet to address historical legacies of past atrocities.
Cardillo, Maira. Transitional Justice between Consolidated Democracies. Graduate Institute ePaper 55, Graduate Institute Publications, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4000/132hs.
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2024 International History and Politics Department Prize
The 1970s was a decisive decade in monetary history as the switch to floating exchange rates made central bankers weighty actors in economic policymaking. Jannik Corsin Belser shows that in the Swiss case this rise in power was not pronounced by decree. Politicians eyed the Swiss National Bank’s growing influence critically, some flirting with installing fiscal dominance. However, in an increasingly complex world of finance, the central bank established a position of expertise vis-à-vis the government and became the dominant force in monetary policymaking. This outcome was not driven by political choice but by structural conditions.
Belser, Jannik Corsin. Dominant by Accident: The Swiss National Bank’s Growing Influence in the Early Days of Floating Exchange Rates. Graduate Institute ePaper 54. Graduate Institute Publications, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4000/130bc.
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