Copyright

Colin Harvey;

Published On

2025-01-06

Page Range

pp. 193–216

Language

  • English

Print Length

24 pages

6. ‘A Virtual Target Painted on my Back…’

Contested Constitutionalism in a Post-conflict Society

Chapter of: Being in Shadow and Light: Academics in Post/Conflict Higher Education(pp. 193–216)
This chapter is a personalised narrative of my own experience of living and working as an academic in Northern Ireland while also engaging in public debates around constitutional change. It documents a podcast recorded during a particularly difficult moment of post-Brexit discussions. Context is provided to explain the language of the title and why it remains appropriate for understanding how academics become targets in post-conflict societies. The blend of interview and reflection is intended to assist the ongoing project of lesson learning. The argument is that it continues to be essential for those in universities to engage proactively in wider societal debates after the cessation of violent conflict.

Contributors

Colin Harvey

(author)
Professor of Human Rights Law and a Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2147-6580

Colin Harvey is a Professor of Human Rights Law and a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast. He has served as Head of the Law School, a member of Senate, and a Director of Research. Professor Harvey is a Commissioner on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. He was a member of the REF2014 Law sub-panel and the REF2014 Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel. He served two terms as a Commissioner on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and was a member of the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council. He has written and taught extensively on human rights and constitutional law.