Open-source investigations for justice and accountability: Navigating hybrid practices and disciplinary in-betweenness: Open-source investigations (OSI) have become an increasingly important tool in documenting and analyzing atrocity crimes, bringing together journalists, legal practitioners, activists, and technologists. Drawing on qualitative research, including interviews with OSI practitioners and field observations, this talk explores how multidisciplinary collaboration shapes OSI practices and knowledge production, and advances justice and accountability efforts. Both the strengths and tensions of these collaborations are discussed, with particular attention to questions of disciplinary “in-betweenness” and the evolving identities of practitioners working at the intersection of journalism, activism, and legal investigations.
Biography: Isabella Regan (MSc.) is a PhD researcher in criminology at the Department of Law, Society and Crime of Erasmus University Rotterdam (defending in 2026). Her research focuses on the involvement of public and private actors in open-source investigations of atrocity crimes. Through international, interdisciplinary qualitative research among a wide variety of open-source practitioners, she explores questions of shifting power dynamics and touches on issues of legitimacy, authority, trust, and justice in this context. Previously, Isabella lectured on criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she developed a course on digital evidence and conflict-related crimes. Moreover, she was a senior research associate at the international pro bono law firm PILPG and a project officer at Amnesty International’s human rights capacity-building programme in the Netherlands. Isabella obtained a Bachelor of Science in Criminology and a Master of Science (cum laude) in International Crimes and Criminology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
