A conversation with Orika Komatsubara[i] BP. Orika, I am so delighted to have finally met you and to have you visit us in our lovely Leuven. And I am -together with my readers- thankful to have this conversation with you. I would like to start our conversation by asking you to tell us something about your background, both cultural and professional,…

Conversations on environmental restorative justice (Part I) During September-November 2022, I taught a course on environmental restorative justice at the Vermont Law and Graduate school. As a final project, I asked my students to hold a conversation with one of the scholars whose work they found inspiring or compelling during the course. Some wonderful conversations have been born as a…

A conversation with Lindsey Pointer[i] BP. Lindsey, thank you for accepting to have this conversation with me. I have wanted to talk to you more at length since the first time we encountered each other, in the art and justice workshop in Tirana. You amazed me at that time, since I kept complaining about Lady Justice, her violent accessories, and…

A conversation with Federico Reggio[i] BP: Federico, I am really happy to have this conversation with you. Perhaps the Coronavirus situation in Italy which has locked you at home in Verona now, will at least play in my favour[ii]. How does a restorative scholar go through such a complex social phenomenon? What are some of your thoughts and feelings at…

A conversation with Jasmyn Elise Story[i] BP. Jasmyn, we met in the Restorative Justice and Social Innovation conference at the University of Padua, only to discover a great affinity between us, ways of thinking, being, and acting in the world. I am always enthusiastic when I encounter restorative practitioners with a background in activism. But before we talk about this intersection…

A conversation with Johannes Feest[i] BP. Johannes, I am honored you have accepted to talk to me. I really appreciate this immediate openness of yours to communicate between generations and between perspectives, such as restorative justice and abolitionism, which I think might become perhaps the focus of our talk. It seems to be a disposition of your character to engage…

A conversation with Rick Kelly[i] BP. Rick, thank you for joining me in a conversation. As a substantial part of our lives is spent in virtual platforms, I have initially ‘encountered’ you on twitter, and we sort of found ourselves amplifying each other’s voices. You know I hold my conversations with scholars and practitioners, and I am usually very curious…

A conversation with Kris Vanspauwen[i] BP. Kris, you are currently a mediator with Moderator, but carry an intense academic background and an important experience of management as director of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ). I would like to know about all these different experiences in comparison, how does it feel to embody them all, and in which way…

A Conversation with Lode Walgrave[i] BP. Lode, I arrived in Leuven after your retirement, so I had initially missed out on that vital personal contact that is necessary for the close transmission of ideas but also for ways of being. For a few years, you were for me the ‘great intellectual’ in the abstract, whose work one should read, and…

A Conversation with Christa Pelikan[i] BP. Christa, you are one of the first friends I have made in the restorative movement, right after Nils Christie, Siri Kemeny and Ivo Aertsen. Although we talk now about friendship of course, in the beginning I had found in you rather an intellectual mother. They say that a woman has one real mother but…