Test students' ability to design an original, graduate-level comparative mixed-methods research proposal and theoretical framework that evaluates how transitional justice mechanisms (trials, truth commissions, reparations) influence long-term institutional trust and democratic consolidation in post-conflict societies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The task should require explicit research questions and hypotheses; justification of cross-regional case selection and temporal scope (long-term effects, e.g., 10+ years); operationalization of key concepts and variables; a coherent mixed-methods strategy (sampling, data sources such as surveys, archival records, interviews, and ethnography; and analytic techniques including statistical modeling and qualitative causal inference); ethical considerations, limitations, and policy implications.