Claire-Anne Lester is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Stellenbosch University, as well as a BA, BA Honours and MPhil from the University of Cape Town.
Lester's research lies at the intersection of political sociology, sociology of law and historical sociology, with a particular focus on the relationship between law, state power and political violence. She studies the institutions through which state's make sense of forms of violence against populations. She examines commissions of inquiry as institutions of official truth-seeking, investigating how legal processes shape the interpretation of violence, the attribution of responsibility and the legitimation of political authority. Drawing on historical and contemporary cases, she is particularly interested in the relationship between legal institutions, structural inequality and struggles for social justice. Her broader research interests include development, decolonisation and transitional justice.