Rita Theresa Kopp

Doctoral Researcher // Associate Fellow

Rita Theresa Kopp is an Associated Doctoral Researcher at PRIF's Research Department Glocal Junctions. In the field of remembrance and reconciliation policy, she researches transitional justice and the Canadian Truth Commission.

Rita Kopp
kopp(at)prif.org
 Press photo

CV

| since 2024
PhD student at PRIF and the University of Bonn

| since2023
Associate Fellow at PRIF

| 2023
Researcher at PRIF

| 2022
Internship at PRIF

| 2020–2022
Student Assistant and Project Coordinator of the double-degree “German and European Studies”, Jena University and National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

| 2020–2023
M.A. Studies in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and foreign policy, Jena University (Master of Arts, M.A.)

| 2018–2019
One-year study-visit in the Diploma of Political Science Program (DPSE) at SciencePo Rennes, France

| 2016–2020
Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in Political Science and Anglo-American Studies, Halle University

PhD Project

The subject of this research project is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, a law passed by the Canadian Parliament that came into effect in 2021. The Act stipulates that Canada’s legal system must be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. After initially rejecting the declaration, the Canadian government underwent a dramatic shift in position, first retroactively endorsing UNDRIP and sub­sequently incorporating it into national law. This process is of particular relevance since Canada is the first settler state and the second country overall, after Colombia, to integrate the decla­ration into its national legal and political frameworks.

A particular focus of the study is on how the UNDRIP localization process affects Indigenous women and girls. While their specific experiences and vulnera­bilities have occasionally garnered attention (e.g., in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls), they are often over­looked in both legislation and research. The project aims to contribute to under­standing the interplay between gender, postcolonial constellations, and Indigenous self-determination in policymaking.

To this end, the national political process that led to the adoption of the UNDRIP Act in Canada is first recon­structed. Furthermore, relevant actors, their interests and the balance of power in the political negotiation process as well as the accompanying social discourse are analyzed. By subsequently examining the imple­mentation processes up to the Canadian federal election in 2025, the arguments made in the discourse are compared in order to under­stand the interactions between political decisions, social reactions and the ongoing challenges in the imple­mentation of the UNDRIP Act. The conceptual foundat­ions of the project were developed from postcolonial and feminist theories. 

Projects

Highlights

Reconciliation Discourse and Politics in Canada

[Translate to Englisch:] New PRIF Report analyzes the Canadian Reconciliation Process and its current problems

Displaying and Processing Political Violence in Museum Spaces ...

Oil painting in dark shades of blue and gray, depicting the execution of three people by a group of armed soldiers. Special Issue of the Journal Cultural Dynamics by Sabine Mannitz and Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann

Publications

  • “The City Before the City”
    | 2025
    Mannitz, Sabine; Kopp, Rita Theresa (2025): “The City Before the City”. Attempts at unravelling colonial violence in Canadian museums, Cultural Dynamics, 37: 1–2, 33–52. DOI: 10.1177/09213740251323378
    Publication
  • Our morality tells us what to eat
    | 2024
    Waldhof, Gabi; Kopp, Rita (2024): Our morality tells us what to eat. A systematic review on attitudes towards genetically modified foods, Outlook on Agriculture, 53: 4, 363–375. DOI: 10.1177/00307270241295398

  • Truth Spoken, Progress Delayed: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
    | 2025
    Kopp, Rita (2025): Truth Spoken, Progress Delayed: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, TraCe Policy Brief, 9, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/PRIFTraCePB2509
  • Truth Spoken, Progress Delayed: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
    | 2025
    Kopp, Rita Theresa (2025): Truth Spoken, Progress Delayed: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, PRIF Blog.
    Publication
  • Easier Said Than Done: The Political Discourse About Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation in Canada
    | 2024
    Kopp, Rita Theresa (2024): Easier Said Than Done: The Political Discourse About Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation in Canada, PRIF Report, 1, Frankfurt/M.. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2401
  • A Step Towards Justice: Canada Agrees to Compensate First Nations for Loss of Culture and Language
    | 2023
    Mannitz, Sabine; Kopp, Rita Theresa (2023): A Step Towards Justice: Canada Agrees to Compensate First Nations for Loss of Culture and Language, PRIF Blog.
    Publication

  • Approaches to Decolonizing Settler Colonialism: Examples from Canada
    | 2022
    Kopp, Rita Theresa; Mannitz, Sabine (2022): Approaches to Decolonizing Settler Colonialism: Examples from Canada, PRIF Working Paper, 58, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/PRIFWP58