Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens
Heisenberg Professor
Address
Office
Office hours
Tuesdays, 4-5pm. (Please use the booking tool on the bottom of the page to book a slot.)
Please send requests for consultations via e-mail during the semester break.
Contact
In my research, I focus on how people deal with conflicts in the context of plural normative orders. I combine long-term ethnographic research with an in-depth study of different normative systems, including the law of the modern state and indigenous normative orders. I analyze the various possibilities of how people can think, feel, enact, embody, and contest key legal and political concepts such as sovereignty, justice, property, value, and punishment. The aim of this transcultural perspective is to develop better ways of understanding and transforming the political dynamics of the contemporary global present, shaped by the intersecting forces of colonialism, capitalism, and modern statehood.
My publications include The Indigenous Paradox: Rights, Sovereignty, and Culture in the Americas (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) and The Sentimental Court: The Affective Life of International Criminal Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
