My Research
My research agenda is motivated by the fundamental questions of why and how atrocities occur and who commits them. I am equally interested in the process of transitional justice after atrocities, including how societies rebuild, collective memory, and the lasting effects of mass violence. My work has also engaged human rights and environmental sociology, and below you will find my peer-reviewed publications. Please see my CV for additional publications, such as other book chapters, reports, policy briefs, and blog posts.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Nyseth Nzitatira, Hollie, Jared Edgerton, and Laura Frizzell. Forthcoming. “Analyzing Participants in the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.” Journal of Peace Research.
Nyseth Nzitatira, Hollie, Evelyn Gertz, and Christopher Uggen. Forthcoming. “Judging Genocide: Emotional Labor During Transitional Justice.” Law & Social Inquiry.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Amanda Robinson, and Mini Saraswati. 2021. “Triggers of Escalations in Violence Against Civilians by Non-State Actors in Africa.” Terrorism and Political Violence. DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2021.1967935
Fox, Nicole, Jamie D. Wise, and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2021. “Following Heavenly Orders: Positive Deviance and the Denial of Responsibility in Narratives of Rescue.” Deviant Behavior. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2021.1983738
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Michelle L. O’Brien, and j. Wahutu Siguru. 2021. “Problems with Oversimplified Categories in the Study of Collective Violence.” Sociology of Development. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/sod.2020.0006
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Laura C. Frizzell, Christopher Uggen, and Evelyn Gertz*. 2021. “Consequences of Judging in Transitional Justice Courts.” British Journal of Criminology 61(5): 1165-1186. Feature article.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Nicole Fox, Courtney DeRoche, and Jamie D. Wise. 2021. “In the Aftermath: The Post-Conflict Social and Economic Consequences of Rescue During Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2021.1955445.
Fox, Nicole, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and John Gasana Gasasira. 2021. “The Impact of Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Social Networks on Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 15(1): 97-114.
Susanne Karstedt, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Laura C. Frizzell. 2021. “Genocide, Mass Atrocity and Theories of Crime: Unlocking Criminology’s Potential.” Annual Review of Criminology 4: 75-97.
Taylor, Whitney and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2021. “Sanctioning Genocide: To What Effect?” Sociological Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121421990071.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Louisa Roberts, Christopher Uggen, and Jean-Damascéne Gasanabo. 2020. “‘We Came to Realize We Are Judges’: The Moral Careers of Elected Lay Jurists in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 14(3): 444-463. (Equal first authorship)
Gasanabo, Jean-Damascéne, Donatien Nikuze, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Hannah Parks. 2020. “Rwanda’s Inyangamugayo: Perspectives from Practitioners in the Gacaca Transitional Justice Mechanism.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 14(2): 153-172.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Christi Smith, and Evelyn Gertz. 2019. “Producing Expertise in a Transitional Justice Setting: Judges at Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts.” Law & Social Inquiry 44(1): 78-101.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2019. “Moving Beyond the State: An Imperative for Genocide Prevention.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 13(3): 64-78.
Fox, Nicole and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2018. “‘I Decided to Save Them: Factors that Shaped Participation in Rescue Efforts during Genocide in Rwanda.’” Social Forces 96(4): 1625-1648.
Bryant, Emily, Emily Schimke, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Christopher Uggen. 2018. “Techniques of Neutralization and Identity Work Among Accused Genocide Perpetrators.” Social Problems 65(4): 584-602.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and Elizabeth Heger Boyle. 2018. “The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950-2011.” Law & Society Review 52(1): 206-233.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Christopher Uggen, and Suzy McElrath. 2018. “A Dynamic Life-Course Approach to Genocide.” Social Currents 5(2): 107-119.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2017. “Accountability After Genocide.” Contexts 16(4): 38-45.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and Shannon Golden. 2017. “Centering Survivors in Local Transitional Justice.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 13: 102-121.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2017. “Subnational Determinants of Killing in Rwanda.” Criminology 55(1): 5-31.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and Nicole Fox. 2017. “Narrating Genocide: Time, Memory, and Blame.” Sociological Forum 32(1): 116-137.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2017. “Re-examining Risk Factors of Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research 19(1): 61-87.
Hola, Barbora and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2016. “Punishing Genocide: A Comparative Empirical Analysis of Sentencing Laws and Practices at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Rwandan Domestic Courts, and Gacaca Courts.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 10(3): 59-80.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Christopher Uggen, and Jean-Damascéne Gasanabo. 2016. “Age, Gender, and the Crime of Crimes: Toward a Life-Course Theory of Genocide Participation.” Criminology 54(4): 713-743.
Ferrales, Gabrielle, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Suzy McElrath. 2016. “Gender-Based Violence Against Men and Boys in Darfur: The Gender-Genocide Nexus.” Gender & Society 30(4): 565-589.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2015. “State Context and Exclusionary Ideologies.” American Behavioral Scientist 60(2): 131-149.
Savelsberg, Joachim J. and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2015. “Representing Human Rights Violations in Darfur: Global Justice, National Distinctions.” American Journal of Sociology 121(2): 564-603.
Pellow, David N. and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2015. “From the New Ecological Paradigm to Total Liberation: The Emergence of a Social Movement Frame.” The Sociological Quarterly 56(1): 185-212.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Christopher Uggen, and Jean-Damascéne Gasanabo. 2014. “Genocide, Justice, and Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 30(3): 333-352.
Zacher, Megan, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2014. “NGOs, IOs, and the ICC: Diagnosing and Framing Darfur.” Sociological Forum 29(1): 29-51.
Pellow, David N. and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2013. “An Environmental Sociology for the 21st Century.” Annual Review of Sociology 39: 229-250.
Kim, Minzee, Wesley Longhofer, Elizabeth Heger Boyle, and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2013. “When Do Laws Matter? National Minimum‐Age‐of‐Marriage Laws, Child Rights, and Adolescent Fertility, 1989–2007.” Law & Society Review 47(3): 589-619.
Nyseth, Hollie, Sarah Shannon, Kia Heise and Suzy Maves McElrath. 2011. “Embedded Sociologists.” Contexts 10(2): 44-50.
Book Chapters
Nyseth Nzitatira, Hollie. Forthcoming. “Prediciting Genocide.” Oxford Handbook on Genocide. Edited by Dirk Moses and Donald Bloxham.
Hola, Barbara, Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, and Maartje Weerdesteijn. 2022. “Introduction: Atrocity Crimes and Atrocity Studies.” Oxford Handbook on Atrocity Crimes. Oxford University Press.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and Laura C. Frizzell. 2021. “Victims of Atrocity Crimes.” Revitalizing Victimization Theory: Revisions, Applications, and New Directions. Edited by Travis C. Pratt and Jillian J. Turanovic.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and Michelle O’Brien. 2020. “Moving Beyond Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders, and Upstanders.” Teaching About Genocide: Advice from Professors and Secondary-Level Teachers, Volume 3. Edited by Samuel Totten. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Case studies to accompany this book chapter can be found here.
Gertz, Evelyn, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Sara E. Brown. 2018. “Gender and Genocide: Assessing Differential Opportunity Structures of Perpetration in Rwanda.” Chapter 7 in Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and Dynamics. Edited by Timothy Williams and Susanne Buckley-Zistel. Routledge.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and David Pellow. 2014. “Environmental Inequalities.” Pp. 115-132 in Color Lines and Racial Angles. Edited by Douglas Hartmann and Christopher Uggen. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Pellow, David N. and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. “Direct Action: Confrontation, Sabotage, and Property Destruction.” Chapter 4 in David N. Pellow’s Total Liberation: The Power and Promise of Animal Rights and the Radical Earth Movement. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie. 2013. “The Crime of Genocide.” Pp. 124-137 in Crime and the Punished. Edited by Douglas Hartmann and Christopher Uggen. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Golden, Shannon and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. “International Criminal Justice.” Pp. 104-123 in Crime and the Punished. Edited by Douglas Hartmann and Christopher Uggen. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie and David N. Pellow. “Environmental Justice: Pollution, Poverty, and Marginalized Communities.” Pp. 308-320 in the Routledge Handbook of Global Environmental Politics. Edited by Paul Harris. New York: Routledge.
Savelsberg, Joachim J. and Hollie Nyseth. 2012. “Collective Representations of Atrocity and National Identity: The Case of Darfur.” Crossing Borders, Shifting Boundaries: National and Transnational Identities in Europe and Beyond. Edited by Markus Hadler and Franz Hoellinger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boyle, Elizabeth Heger and Hollie Nyseth. 2011. “Why the Underutilization of Child Rights in Global Mobilization? The Cases of Female Genital Cutting Practices and User Fees for Education.” Pp. 91-120 in Human Rights: New Possibilities/New Problems. Edited by Austin Sarat. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.