Kent Law School Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris has been awarded a grant for an innovative research project that will explore the use of graphic design in the negotiations over the possible reunification of Cyprus.
The grant for £2730 has been awarded by the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) for a project entitled ‘Graphic design, civil society and the current negotiations for the econo-legal reunification of Cyprus’.
Professor Perry-Kessaris said: ‘This project will, for the first time, explore the actual and potential use and limitations of graphic design in relation to econo-legal aspects of post conflict reconciliation.
‘It will do so through the lens of the Cyprus reunification negotiations, parties to which are currently on a fast and credible track to submit to referendum a plan for bizonal, bicommunal federation. It will focus specifically on the use of graphic media by civil society actors to communicate about three econo-legal fields: inter-communal trade, displaced property ownership and local commercial regulation.’
Professor Perry-Kessaris has studied economics, ethnography and graphic design in addition to law; and has conducted empirical work in India, Sri Lanka and Cyprus. Her current research focuses primarily on the application of design thinking to econo-legal research and practice. Her blog on this and related topics can be found at: http://econosociolegal.blogspot.co.uk
Major recent publications include ‘The Case for a Visualized Economic Sociology of Legal Development’ (SLSA Article Prize 2015), Socio-legal Approaches to International Economic Law: Text, context, subtext (Routledge 2012) and, Towards an Economic Sociology of Law (Wiley-Blackwell 2013), co-edited with with Diamond Ashiagbor and Prabha Kotiswaran.
More examples of Professor Perry-Kessaris’s work can be found on Vimeo and Twitter.