Tristan Anne Borer

Tristan Borer’s current research focuses on issues surrounding Western media portrayals of distant human rights abuses, especially those on the African continent. Prior to this, her research focused on human rights in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Specifically, she has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and gendered dimensions of transitional justice mechanisms

She has edited two books: "Media, Mobilization, and Human Rights: Mediating Suffering" (Zed Books, 2012), and "Telling the Truths: Truth-Telling and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Societies" (University of  Notre Dame Press, 2006). She is also the author of "Challenging the State: Churches as Political Actors in South Africa 1980-1994" (University of Notre Dame Press, 1998). She has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on South African politics, transitional justice, and post-conflict peacebuilding.

Professor Borer is the recipient of several research awards including a grant from the United States Institute of Peace and the Joan Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. In addition, the American Political Science Association awarded her the Best Paper in Religion and Politics. She has also won two different teaching awards at Connecticut College, as well as an award for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science by the American Political Science Association.

Professor Borer’s teaching revolves around issues of human rights. She teaches the following courses:

• Introduction to International Relations
• Human Rights and the Media
• Human Rights and World Politics
• The Politics of Refugees
• Human Rights and South African Politics
• Women and World Politics: Feminist International Relations.

In 2005 she delivered the 2005 Baccalaureate speech, "The Long End of the Stick", at the College's 87th Commencement.

View the government and international relations department website.

Majoring in Government and International Relations.