Image of peacebuilding — Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

Balzan PhD Fellowships on New Horizons in Restorative Justice and Restorative Peacemaking

Projects / Initiatives

Call for applications - Fieldwork grants for PhD Candidates

Enrolled PhD students can apply to the Australian National University for US$10,000 Fellowships from John Braithwaite’s Balzan Prize funds. Successful applicants will also enjoy opportunities for interaction, perhaps even limited employment, with John Braithwaite and his research team. Eligibility is restricted to:

Scholars already enrolled in a recognised university PhD program.
PhD projects on Restorative Justice/Peacemaking.
PhD projects needing fieldwork support only in the following countries:

African Countries: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d-Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt (Peacebuilding Compared will code the Sinai insurgency 2011-2023), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Somaliland, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Western Sahara.

Non-African Countries: Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria, Yemen

Background on the wider Braithwaite Balzan project

School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University Project

Director: John Braithwaite

Deputy Directors: Dr Yan Zhang, the Australian National University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Assistant Professor Zelalem Testaye Sirna, University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

John Braithwaite is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. With Valerie Braithwaite, he founded the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at ANU. You can access his publications at johnbraithwaite.com.

Aims of Braithwaite’s Balzan Project

Renew and expand the social movement for restorative justice by deepening restorative research capability among young scholars in Africa, China, and worldwide.
Complete initial fieldwork for Peacebuilding Compared in Africa, Ukraine, Chechnya, Yemen, and Syria.
Encourage and support recipients of Balzan PhD Fellowships to lead with editing and publishing collections of articles (hopefully many co-authored with John Braithwaite) with titles like Indigenous Justice, Restorative Justice and Peacemaking in Africa or Restorative Justice and Peacemaking in Africa.
Chinese University of Hong Kong will collaborate with the project under the leadership of Dr Jin Sun and would deliver and fund sub-projects on restorative justice and peacemaking. CUHK will fund two or three PhD scholarships on Environmental Restorative Justice. John Braithwaite will support those PhD students with mentoring and fieldwork travel funding.

The African focus

This project aims to expand the horizons of restorative justice research in all regions of the planet, including Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Oceania, and right across Asia. Yet the main geographic and spending focus will be on Africa with the production of many papers by dozens of young African scholars funded by Braithwaite’s Balzan Prize. They will work on restorative justice or peacemaking in 20 or more specific war-afflicted African countries.

The most fundamental reason for the African focus is that John Braithwaite will complete most of the initial fieldwork component for the Peacebuilding Compared project in Africa during the next five years. To date, he has achieved that for only five war-torn African countries. He has already been collecting data for 20 years on Peacebuilding Compared. Initial fieldwork is complete across Asia and Oceania, the Americas, Europe except for Ukraine and Chechyna, and most of the Middle East (except Syria and Yemen).

Braithwaite started this work with a visit to Ethiopia to collect fieldwork data on Ethiopian wars in November 2024. Since the African Union headquarters is in Addis Ababa, another objective is to engage African Union peacemaking and peacekeeping leaders with the value of an African Balzan Project. Overall, the African Balzan Project will increase the number of coded Peacebuilding Compared armed conflicts from the current count of 76 to over 110 for quantitative analysis (because many countries have more than one war to code). Braithwaite (2022, 2024) discusses how this future quantitative work might be tackled in 2030 with a new generation of quantitative scholars to interrogate the changing character of contemporary war and peace. Many reconciliation, transitional justice, and peacemaking variables are coded in the dataset.

Balzan support to collect data in Africa

Balzan Support for PhD Candidates to Collect Data in Africa (plus 4 other countries)

At least 20, and perhaps approaching 30 Balzan Restorative Justice and Peacemaking PhD Fellowships will be offered to PhD students mostly enrolled in African universities studying restorative justice and/or peacemaking in that same country. That, by design, is the priority. Non-African applicants from non-African universities are also welcomed. Some will be supported.
Applicants must already be accepted and enrolled in a recognised PhD program to be eligible. The Fellowship will be US$10,000: $5000 to support their in-country fieldwork after they have provided a persuasive fieldwork plan with signed approval of it by their principal PhD Supervisor. Their PhD Supervisor has total responsibility for the direction, theoretical framework, and methodology of their PhD. But John Braithwaite will not authorize disbursement of the $5000 US unless it meets the Balzan Project excellence standards. A year later, once a satisfactory draft chapter or paper has been and presented at one of the 25 half-day Braithwaite Balzan zoom symposiums of all Fellows, again with the agreement in writing from their university supervisor, they will be awarded a second US$5000 for further fieldwork, purchase of books, and the like, to assist in completing their PhD.

Applicants may only apply for a Restorative Justice and Peacemaking Balzan PhD Fellowship if their data collection will be in one of the following countries that John Braithwaite will be able to visit during the period 2025-29. They can apply any time until 31 December 2027 for US$10,000 towards Balzan-funded research in any of the following countries: African Countries: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d-Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt (Peacebuilding Compared will code the Sinai insurgency 2011-2023), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Somaliland, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Western Sahara. Non-African Countries: Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria, Yemen
Balzan Restorative Justice and Peacemaking Fellows would be encouraged to attend most of the 25 half-day Zoom meetings of all Fellows with John Braithwaite to discuss their progress. They would be expected to circulate two draft chapters/papers on their findings at two of these zoom meetings. John Braithwaite will provide Fellows with feedback on the two papers, as would other Fellows, and their supervisors, who we also want to participate in the part of those meetings that is on presentations of their PhD student.
In 2028 and 2029, there will be zoom meetings dedicated to how to search for postdoctoral fellowship opportunities worldwide.
A disadvantage African students face promoting competitive research to the global academy is the weak access they have to the intellectual commons from university libraries in developing countries devastated by war. The Australian National University will grant access to Australian National University Library resources for all Braithwaite Balzan Fellows.
It is expected that most of the countries on the above list will get one and only one Fellowship. So it will be highly competitive. Some countries may get none because no applicant from that country is competitive with those from other countries. If a non-African gets an African fellowship, then another African from that country is quite likely to also get a fellowship for that country. I have listened and heard the message that so many special funding opportunities for research in Africa go to non-Africans. This will not happen with this Balzan Project because, as becomes clear in the next paragraph, John Braithwaite will work mainly with locals who have local language and cultural skills.
Balzan Restorative Justice and Peacemaking Fellows will hopefully be offered the opportunity to do some joint fieldwork with John Braithwaite for his Peacebuilding Compared project. In this, Fellows will be encouraged to ‘use’ him to get research access to persons for their PhD research that they might not be able to get. This Peacebuilding Compared Research is, however, for the most part quite separate from Fellows’ PhD research that Fellows control in their own way with their local PhD supervisor. Therefore, the payment for all your expenses associated with Peacebuilding Compared research will not be paid from Fellows’ US$10,000, which is wholly and only for their PhD data collection. Fellows are free not to become a co-fieldworker and/or possibly a co-author in Peacebuilding Compared. Fellows might be overwhelmed with other commitments at the time Braithwaite arrives to do Peacebuilding Compared fieldwork in their country. That’s fine. This is just another opportunity for Fellows as a result of being supported by the Balzan Foundation. Fellows can take or leave it as they please. It is not an obligation. If Fellows do participate, they will receive modest payment for their time, their travel, accommodation, and any other fieldwork expenses incurred for Peacebuilding Compared.
During Braithwaite’s fieldwork, Balzan Fellows will be encouraged to organize an event (a mini-conference or a sharing circle) for local restorative justice researchers and practitioners to share their work and learn about the Balzan Project work. In addition, Fellows will be encouraged to participate in a larger and more specialized conference in Africa on Indigenous and Restorative Justice and Peacemaking.

How to apply

Application in English must be submitted by 31 December 2027 by email to Balzan.phd@gmail.com

Include a 2-3 page summary of your PhD thesis project, timeline, and fieldwork in the above countries for which you seek funding. Be realistic; available funding is only US$10,000.
You must include a signed letter of support for your application from the Chair of your PhD supervisory committee at the university where you are enrolled. That letter must also confirm that you are already enrolled in the PhD program. Also include name, email and phone number of one other referee who could be approached.
Send your CV and one or two examples of your research writing in English.
If you wish, your application can also share any ideas you have for inviting local restorative justice and peacemaking scholars to meet with John Braithwaite in the country of your fieldwork.

Grant details

Find out more about the Balzan PhD Fellowships by viewing or downloading the PDF.