(photo: The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation).
Kristen Kao has been selected as a 2025 Wallenberg Academy Fellow by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Her five-year “BIG PEACE” project will undertake a groundbreaking investigation into the processes that enable countries to heal and rebuild following civil war.
In 2025, 27 young researchers became new Wallenberg Academy Fellows. Since 2012, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has appointed young researchers as Wallenberg Academy Fellows. It is the largest private investment in young researchers in Sweden. It involves a five-year research grant for basic research and the opportunity to participate in a mentoring program. The program also contributes to the increased internationalization of the Swedish research environment.
About BIG PEACE Project
Bridging Injustice Gaps: Peace Enhancement in the Aftermath of Conflict Engagement (BIG PEACE) aims to empirically test links between feelings of (in)justice and desired outcomes of peace processes.
The project does so by refining and systematizing techniques for explaining and addressing injustice gaps in post-conflict settings. Injustice gaps occur when recompense for a transgression fails to match what is deemed appropriate by a victim.
AI Generated
BIG PEACE innovatively integrates political science theories of legitimacy with psychological theories of forgiveness, feelings of (in)justice, and desires for vengeance. Focusing on the quality—rather than quantity—of transitional justice (TJ) processes at the grassroots level and providing voices to victims, this project fills a serious gap in the field of peace studies.
BIG PEACE employs a mixed-methods approach leveraging the unique strengths of in-depth interviews, focus groups, large-N surveys, and experimental vignettes allowing for the identification of causal mechanisms underpinning perceptions of (in)justice and testing their links to peace outcomes. The project will also pursue some field experiments seeking to ameliorate the tough conditions that lead to conflict recurrence.