2010-11
Chandra Lekha Sriram October - December 2010
Chandra Lekha Sriram is Professor of Law at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. In 2006, she founded the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict (CHRC), which she directed until 2010. Professor Sriram is author and co-editor of numerous books and articles on conflict prevention and peacebuilding and human rights, international criminal accountability, and transitional justice. She is author of the monographs Peace as governance: Power-sharing, armed groups, and contemporary peace negotiations (Palgrave 2008); Globalizing justice for mass atrocities: A revolution in accountability (Routledge 2005); and Confronting past human rights violations: Justice vs peace in times of transition (Frank Cass 2004).
Yao Kun September 2010 - March 2011
Yao Kun is an assistant research fellow specializing in human rights, the development of NGOs, and UN reform issues at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR). She has worked at the Institute of World Political Studies of CICIR for 6 years, since receiving her M.A. in Law from the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University in 2004. She is an expert at the United Nations Association of China, in charge of research and evaluation of human rights conditions in China, and is the co-author of several books, including Studies on International Strategic and State Security (2005), Strategic and Security Review (2005/2006), United Nations: Toward a Harmonious World (2008), and China’s UN Diplomacy (2009).
Ann Marie Clark September 2010 - January 2011
Ann Marie Clark is Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Her research focuses on international human rights norms in international politics and the role of nongovernmental actors in promoting norms internationally. She is the author of Diplomacy of Conscience (Princeton 2001), on Amnesty International and the development of international legal norms of human rights, and co-author of Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society (SUNY, 2005, with Elisabeth Jay Friedman and Kathryn Hochstetler), on nongovernmental actors in human rights, women’s rights, and environmental issues at the United Nations. Her research has appeared in World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Latin American Research Review.
Katja Kurz August - December 2010
Katja Kurz is a PhD candidate at the University of Mainz, Germany, where she is conducting research in the realm of a graduate group on “Life Writing” in the Department of English. As a lecturer, she has been the first to introduce the interdisciplinary study of human rights and life writing in the curriculum. For her dissertation, Miss Kurz is exploring how human rights organizations are making use of autobiographical accounts by witnesses, activists, and victims for their campaigns against human rights violations. She is particularly interested in the intersections between ethics and aesthetics that inform such campaigns. Before enrolling in the PhD program, Miss Kurz obtained an M.A. degree in English at Clark University in Worcester, and an M.A. degree in American Studies, Public Law, and Cultural Anthropology in Mainz. Miss Kurz is volunteering for a German NGO supporting education for township children in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Dr. Gao Yaojie March 2010 - March 2011
Dr. Gao Yaojie, an OBG specialist, is a renowned expert on HIV/AIDS. She has had a prominent role internationally in revealing the AIDS pandemic in China, despite the ongoing cover-up and corruption, and she has experienced subsequent crackdown by the government. She has traveled to several hundred villages and over ten provinces in her career, using even her personal funds and award money toward the cause. Dr. Gao’s work has included not only the medical help for AIDS patients and exposure of the pandemic, but also publishing AIDS prevention education, including 1.2 million pamphlets and a half million books. She has consulted U.S. Secretary of State Clinton in both Beijing and Washington, DC.
At Columbia, Dr. Gao will compile of the results from field trips and research. Her report will uncover the truth about the AIDS epidemic in China. Her most recent major publications include China AIDS Plague: 10,000 Letters (Hong Kong: Open Publishing House, 2009), Ten Years’ Journey of AIDS Prevention (Changjiang: Culture and Art Press, 2006), The ten thousand letters - what I am seeing and hearing: AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, the present situation of life (with Shang Huibin and Guo Mingjiu, China Social Science Press, 2004), and The Investigation of AIDS in China (Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005).
Kei Hiruta January 2010 - January 2011
Kei Hiruta (BA Keio; MA Essex; MSc Oxford) is Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He is currently waiting for his D.Phil. viva at Oxford University where he has written a thesis on concepts of pluralism in mid-twentieth-century political thought. He works in ethics, political theory and political ideologies. His current research focuses on Hannah Arendt's and Isaiah Berlin's moral and political ideas.
Carmen Márquez Carrasco June - September 2010
Since December 2007 Carmen Márquez Carrasco has been the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization (EMA) at the European Inter-university Centre for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC), Venice (Italy). She is the first woman to have been elected for such position, which was previously held by Prof. Manfred Nowak. EIUC is a leading centre of education, training and research activities in European policy areas related to the promotion of human rights and democracy. Prof. Márquez was the Program Director of the EMA Program during the a.y. 2005-2006, where she is also frequent lecturer.
At EIUC, Carmen Márquez Carrasco has developed and spearheaded international initiatives to increase the visibility of democracy (The EIUC Photo competition visualising democracy) in and out the EU partner universities. In February 2007 Carmen Márquez Carrasco was co-director of the first international conference on the new human rights diplomacy. It was held at the Three Cultures Foundation (Seville, Spain). She is also a Professor of International Law and International Relations at the University of Seville. Professor Márquez Carrasco holds a Ph. D. in law from the University of Seville. She is the author of several publications dealing with human rights, peace and security, codification and development of international law and international criminal law.
2009-10
Alberta Spreafico February - June 2010
Alberta Spreafico is a graduate student in Economics, Politics, and International Institutions at the University of Pavia, Italy. While at Columbia, she is researching her dissertation, which explores the possibility of an approach to education based on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in comparison to the more commonly used Human Capital based approaches. This research is supported by the European Union. Her previous papers include “Beliefs to die for” (2009); “Female Education and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa” (2009); and “The Italian Political elections in 2008 and the Italians’ responses” (2008-2009).
Ronald Holzhacker February - May 2010
Ronald Holzhacker is assistant professor for political science at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. He is founding director of the European Research Colloquium of the Netherlands Institute of Government. He holds the PhD from the University of Michigan and the J.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is broadly interested in processes of Europeanization and transnationalization, in particular the impact of the European Union on democratic processes in the member states. He has been appointed by the European Commission as a senior EU expert for a network of experts in the area of non-discrimination, providing a particular emphasis on the role of civil society in multi-level governance.
His recent research has been concerned with civil society organizations in Eastern and Western Europe striving for equality for gays and lesbians. He has now begun working on an edited volume, bridging law and politics, with scholars and activists working throughout the world called Global Movements, Global Rights: Transnational activism, international human rights law, and national contexts for LGBT. He is an editor of three books, The Transnationalization of Economics, States, and Civil Societies (Springer 2009), Democratic Governance and European Integration: Linking Societal and State Processes of Democracy (Edward Elgar 2007), and European Research Reloaded: Cooperation and Integration among Europeanized States (Springer 2006), as well as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration, "Democratic Legitimacy and the European Union," (29: 3, 2007).
Carla De Ycaza September 2009 - June 2010
Carla De Ycaza (MA, Human Rights Studies, Columbia University; BA, Political Science and Classics, Vassar College) is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Human Rights and Transitional Justice at New York University's Center for Global Affairs. She is also a doctoral research fellow and PhD candidate in International Human Rights Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, studying under the supervision of William Schabas. Her thesis research focuses on traditional and modern methods of post-conflict transitional justice in Africa. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law. She is also a Research Consultant at the American Council on Africa, researching and promoting issues of international criminal law, transitional justice and conflict resolution in Africa.
Lisa Hajjar September 2009 - June 2010
Lisa Hajjar is associate professor in the Law and Society Program, University of California - Santa Barbara. Her publications include Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza (University of California Press, 2005) and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Political Science, Vols. 1-5, co-edited with Richard Falk and Hilal Elver (Routledge, 2007). Her current research focuses on legal challenges to US torture in the context of the "war on terror," and accountability for the intellectual authors of this policy.
Dennis Gratz September 2009 - May 2010
Dennis Gratz was born in 1978 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Sarajevo in 2001 and received his MA degree in Democracy and Human Rights at the University of Bologna in 2002. In 2003 he passed the bar examination and started to work as an attorney at law in Sarajevo. In 2007 he was awarded a PhD degree from the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Social Sciences. His thesis dealt with systematic war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia 1992-1995, with a specific focus on elimination of local elites (Elitocide).
Among many other professional and extracurricular activities, Dennis has been working as a lecturer on Genocide and Genocidal Atrocities in Theory and International Law at the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo. He is also co-founder and member of the Executive Board of Naša stranka, a young progressive socio-liberal political party. He has written two novels and has directed three short feature films.
Eunike Piwoni September 2009 - May 2010
Eunike Piwoni is a Ph.D. candidate at Bamberg University in Germany and member of the graduate school “Markets and Social Systems in Europe.” She holds a diploma in Eastern European Cultural and Business Studies from Passau University. Being supervised by German social philosopher Richard Münch, she is examining national identity change in Germany in the past three decades. Her stay at Columbia University is funded by the German Research Foundation, and while staying at the ISHR she is especially interested in which notion of nationhood is argued in political philosophers’ global discourse on human rights.
Hanna Ziadeh September - December 2009
Hanna Ziadeh is a Ph.D. candidate at the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen and an assistant professor at the University of Roskilde, Institute for International Studies. He studies and teaches constitutionalism and nation-building in Iraq and Lebanon. Hanna Ziadeh is the author of Sectarianism and Intercommunal Nation-Building in Lebanon, London, 2006, which was listed as one of the best sold books in Lebanon in 2006. He has a monthly op-ed at the leading Danish Daily Politiken.
Dirk Moses September - November 2009
Dirk Moses (PhD, UC Berkeley, 2000) joined the Department of History at the University of Sydney in 2000 after studying in Australia, Scotland, the United States, and Germany. Before coming to Sydney, he was a research fellow in the Department of History at the University of Freiburg, where he worked on postwar German debates about the recent past, a project that has appeared as German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past (Cambridge, 2007). His current interests are in world history, genocide, the United Nations, colonialism and terror, about which he has published a number of anthologies, including Genocide and Settler Society (Berghahn Books, 2004) and Empire, Colony, Genocide (Berghahn Books, 2008). The Oxford Handbook on Genocide Studies (co-edited with Donald Bloxham) is due Spring 2010.
Radwan Ziadeh July - September 2009
Radwan Ziadeh is a co-founder of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC and served as its executive director in 2008. He is also the founder and was director in 2005 of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria. Previously, Mr. Ziadeh served as editor in-chief of Tyarat magazine in 2001-2002 and was secretary of the Syrian Organization for Transparency. He was a researcher with the UNDP project "Syria 2025" and was named best researcher in the Arab world in political science by Jordan’s Abdulhameed Shoman Foundation in 2004. Ziadeh has been one of the major players in “Damascus Spring,” a period of intense debate about politics and social issues and calls for reform in Syria after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in 2000.
He has written ten books including, most recently, The clash of values between Islam and the West, with Kevin James O’Toole (2009); Political Islam in Syria (2008); and Decision Making and Foreign Policy in Syria (2007) and has edited an additonal five, most recently, with George Irani, The Democratic Transition between Spain and Syria (2009). Mr. Ziadeh is a frequent political commentator to several U.S., European, and Middle Eastern media sources, including Aljazeera, Alarabiya, the B.B.C., and Alhura. He is also writes a bimonthly op-ed for the leading Arab daily Al-Hayat.
2008-09
David L. Phillips August 2007-August 2009
David L. Phillips is a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Center for the Study of Human Rights. He has worked as a senior adviser to the US Department of State and the United Nations Secretariat. He has held academic positions as a visiting scholar at Harvard University's Center for Middle East Studies and as a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He has also served as executive director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action, director of the European Centre for Common Ground, project director at the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo, and president of the Congressional Human Rights Foundation.
Wang Tiancheng January 2008-August 2009
Wang Tiancheng, a friend and colleague of Hu Shigen, is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Mr. Wang earned his B.A. from Hunan Normal University and his law degree from Peking University, where he served as lecturer in law.
He was active in the 1989 prodemocracy movement, helped found an independent political party, the Liberal and Democratic Party of China, and was involved in the Free Labour Union of China. He was detained in 1992 and charged with “actively taking part in a counter-revolutionary group” and “carrying out counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement.” He was sentenced to a five-year prison term.
Mr. Wang has published influential and prize-winning papers on the rule of law and constitutionalism in China. These include “The Backbones of the Constitution,” writen before his detention, and two papers dealing with republicanism and constitutionalism, “On Republic” and “A Second Treatise on Republic,” both conceived in prison but written after his release. He has also called publicly for a reconsideration of government policies on Tibet, most prominently in his article “Federalism: the Best Solution to the Tibet Issue.”
Theresa Khorozyan January - May 2009
Theresa Khorozyan is a visiting lecturer at the American University of Armenia (AUA) and is also the senior program manager of Counterpart International’s civic advocacy support program. Ms. Khorozyan has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Center for Policy Analysis at AUA. She received her MA in the theory and practice of human rights from the University of Essex, UK and her MA in political science and international relations from the American University of Armenia.
Ms. Khorozyan joined CSHR in January 2009 as a recipient of the Open Society Institute’s Faculty Development Fellowship, which is designed to encourage the pursuit of academic careers, generate new approaches to curricular and pedagogical reform, and support the development of regional and international institutional partnerships and collaborative projects. While at CSHR, Ms. Khorozyan developed a new course, Non-state Actors in the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, for political science students at AUA. The objective of this course is to examine and assess human rights practices and policies of various non-state actors at international and national levels, focusing in particular on the roles of non-governmental organizations, businesses, and development agencies in setting and enforcing human rights standards. As a visiting scholar, Ms. Khorozyan also revised the syllabus of the international law and human rights course that she currently teaches.
Sarangerel Lkhamsuren January - May 2009
Sarangerel Lkhamsuren is a lecturer in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the School of History and Social Sciences and a teacher trainer at the Center for Human Rights Education of Mongolia State University of Education (MSUE). She is also involved with the Central Asia Research and Training Initiative of the Open Society Forum of Hungary’s International Higher Education Support Program. She has worked with the Mongolian Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (MECS) and UNICEF on a number of projects pertaining to children’s rights education.
As a visiting scholar, Ms. Lkhamsurenl researched educational reform, human rights education, and the cooperation among school administrators, teachers, parents, community members, and other stakeholders. Based on this research, she wrote a chapter on stakeholder cooperation and school violence for a curriculum module commissioned by UNICEF, MECS, and MSUE. Her most recent article, “Children’s Rights in Educational Settings of Mongolia,” is pending publication.
Danielle Celermajer January - April 2009
Danielle Celermajer is a senior lecturer and director of the Asia Pacific Masters of Human Rights and Democratisation at the University of Sydney. She attended Columbia University as a Fulbright scholar where she completed her PhD summa cum laudae in political science. She was previously the director of indigenous policy at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Dr. Celermajer’s areas of research are human rights, transitional justice, historical memory, and the interface between religion and politics. Her book, Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apology was released by Cambridge University Press in May, 2009.
As a visiting scholar, Dr. Celermajer prepared a draft curriculum for the Asia Pacific Master of Human Rights and Democratisation, a European Union-funded cooperative program involving four other universities in the region. The major objectives of the program are to develop the capacity of activists in the Asia Pacific region, to support them in building stronger and more effective human rights institutions, and to build the capacity of universities in the region to effectively teach and research human rights issues. The curriculum she prepared will be implemented in 2010.
2007-08
D’Ann Penner September 2007-September 2008
D’Ann Penner received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied belief and resistance among Cossacks, farmers and women in the formative years of the Soviet Union. Her first book on the famine of 1932-1933 was co-authored with Viktor Kondrashin and has been published in Russian. During long research trips to Russia, she conducted ethnographies of post-Soviet voting habits, discontent, and nostalgia. In 1997, she joined the Department of History at the University of Memphis, where she felt drawn to the mission of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. As Director, she was the lead P.I. on an oral interview project that documented the human rights violations experienced by 185 New Orleanians, largely of color, scattered by the hurricane and by FEMA. Overcoming: Post-“Katrina” narratives from the Crescent City and Beyond , co-authored with Keith C. Ferdinand, a cardiologist from the Lower Ninth Ward, will be a foretaste of the larger interpretative project. While at the Center this year, Penner is working on Always another Mountain: Community and Resilience after Katrina. Her argument is that in a post-modern world, Black New Orleans was not like most American cities where sociologists observe that blacks and whites have become more individualized and isolated. Pre-Katrina New Orleanians shared an extra-familial sense of connectedness and responsibility that impacted storm strategies—such as whether to leave and whom to care for after the storm--and ultimately kept down the final death toll from Hurricane Katrina in the city. In involuntary exile, however, the disruption of these networks has slowed down the healing process, undercut survival tactics, and increased cultural and social anomie. Nonetheless, the shared history of overcoming discrimination provides a reservoir of resilience and an effective toolkit of tactical weapons bodes well for the future of individual New Orleanians wherever they remain, even as it increases the emotional impact of the loss and heightens the odds against economic recovery. Professor Peter Bearman is Penner’s advisor.
Wendy S. Hesford July-December 2007
Wendy S. Hesford is an Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State University with affiliate appointments in Women’s Studies and Comparative Studies, and a Faculty Fellow at the OSU Moritz School of Law. She is the author of Framing Identities: Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity (1999); co editor with Wendy Kozol of Haunting Violations: Feminist Criticism and the Crisis of the Real (2001) and, most recently, Just Advocacy: Women’s Human Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation (2005). Her current book project Spectacular Rhetorics: Human Rights, Feminisms, and Transnational Publics will offer several rhetorical case-studies of literary and cinematic representations of human rights violations and advocacy in the late 20th and early 21st century. While at Columbia University, she will be advised by Professor Andrew Nathan.
2006-07
Aagje K. Ieven January-June 2007
Aagje Ieven is a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights. She is a doctoral candidate in Law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where she is also employed as a teaching assistant in the field of philosophy of law and legal theory. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Medicine (Leuven, 1998), Ms. Ieven completed her master’s degree in Philosophy with a thesis on the tensions between feminism and liberalism (Leuven, 2002). While studying philosophy she spent one semester abroad at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. At Columbia, Ms. Ieven will be conducting research for her doctoral dissertation on “Privacy between Autonomy and Identity. An Ethical Political Perspective on Privacy Rights in European and International Human Rights Law”. This dissertation takes a reconstructivist and comparative perspective on human rights law and focuses on the gender- and autonomy-related aspects of privacy. While at Columbia University, Ms. Ieven will be advised by Professor Jean L. Cohen.
Lada Mirzalieva October 2006-May 2007
Lada Mirzalieva is currently a visiting scholar at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs. For five years, Ms. Mirzalieva taught International Human Rights Law, International Organizations, Constitutional Law, and Introduction to Legal Systems at the Academy of State and Social Construction and at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), Uzbekistan. Ms. Mirzalieva was the first faculty member to introduce courses on Human Rights and Constitutional Law to the WIUT curriculum. Ms. Mirzalieva is the co-author of a Prosecutorial Reform Index commissioned by American Bar Association/Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) to be implemented in ABA/CEELI target countries. Also for ABA/ CEELI, Ms. Mirzalieva conducted research on anti-corruption resources in the United States. She contributed to the development of the model legislation on harm reduction measures in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. While at Columbia University, Dr. Mirzalieva will be advised by Professor J. Paul Martin.
2005-06
Stephanie Athey January 2006-September 2006
Stephanie Athey is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies at Lasell College in the Boston area. She is Co-Director of Mexico Shoulder to Shoulder International Service-Learning Program at Lasell. She has published essays on eugenic feminisms in the nineteenth century, race and reproductive technologies, and colonial discourse in the Americas . Her recent book, Sharpened Edge: Women of Color, Resistance and Writing (Praeger, 2003) explores transnational feminist struggles and human rights. While at Columbia University, Dr. Athey will be advised by Professor Andrew Nathan.
Eva Erman September 2004-June 2006
Eva Erman holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stockholm University, Sweden. She has a B.A. in social anthropology and in political science, and an M.A. in political science, all three from Stockholm University. She also completed part of her studies toward the M.A. degree at Kingston University, London. In her doctoral thesis, Eva explored the relationship between democracy and human rights with particular attention directed to the absence of political rights in the international rights discourse, from a Habermasian deliberative perspective. Dr. Erman is a senior lecturer at Stockholm University, where she teaches political theory, political philosophy and issues related to human rights. At the moment she is working on an article with the working title, "Rethinking accountability in the context of human rights." While at Columbia University Dr. Erman will be advised by Professor Thomas Pogge. She has funding from Wenner-Gren Foundations. Her most recent publication is the book Human Rights and Democracy: Discourse Theory and Global Rights Institutions (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005).
Keu Ribeiro February 2006-March 2006
Keu Ribeiro completed a BA in Business Administration from the University of Pernambuco , Brazil . She has worked in various capacities as an educator and facilitator of different management processes for non-governmental organizations, government organizations, and small businesses. Her most recent employment was as the Project Coordinator at the Xeromoa Institute of Education and Culture, where she aided in developing projects related to education for social change based on art. She also works at Terre des Hommes Suisse as Regional Coordinator, supporting its project in Bahia.
Thami Ngwenya February 2006-March 2006
Thami Ngwenya holds an LLM and BA in Political Science from the University of Durban-Westville in South Africa. In his dissertation, he explored the African Charter as a mechanism of promotion of human rights, particularly with regard to the establishment of democratic governance in Africa. He has worked as a parliamentary researcher, voting officer, and most recently, as the Program Manager for the Africa Governance Program at the Center for Public Participation in South Africa. His projects related to education for social change based on art. Mr. Ngwenya has also authored several papers on topics such as participatory democracy and decentralization, socio-economic rights, and gender and development.
Zaripa Kaipova January 2006-March 2006
Zaripa Kaipova has a Bachelor’s degree in International Law from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent , Uzbekistan. She has worked at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law in Uzbekistan as both a legal consultant and a legal assistant. In addition, Ms. Kaipova was employed at Medecins Sans Frontieres as an Assistant Regional Epidemiologist. Her work explores various aspects of the legal and NGO sectors.
Louise Ehlers January 2006-February 2006
Louise Ehlers holds an MPhil in Public Law, a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work, and a B.Sc. in Psychology and Social Work from the University of Capetown. In addition, she completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Human Resource Management from the University of South Africa. She has worked on issues of crime prevention and child welfare within South Africa and, most recently, she worked as a Senior Project Officer for the Criminal Justice Initiative at the Open Society Foundation for South Africa. Ms. Ehlers has authored various publications on legal reform, sentencing, and victim empowerment within South Africa .
2004-2005
Ivana Jelic May-July 2005
Ivana Jelic is a junior lecturer at Law School of University of Montenegro, Montenegro. She is a doctoral candidate in Public International Law and Human Rights at the Law School of University of Belgrade, Serbia. She graduated at Law School of University of Montenegro and holds LL.M. in international law and human rights from Law School of University of Belgrade. Ivana’s LL.M. thesis has been dedicated to contemporary international legal protection of minority rights, with special emphasize on South East Europe. Her doctoral research is concentrated on the state responsibility for violation of human rights by individuals. While at Columbia University, Ivana is working on research related to relation of religious identity and right to education in the Balkans. Her academic advisor is Professor Paul Martin. Ivana is financially supported by Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP). Through this program she has spent academic year 2004/2005 as a Visiting Scholar at University of California in Berkeley, where she was working on curriculum and teaching methods development.
Stefano Varriale October 2004-March 2005
Stefano Varriale is a doctoral candidate in International Law and Human Rights at the Law University "Federico II" of Naples (Italy). He is focusing his research on the rights-based approach that international and regional organizations have adopted to ensure the centrality of human rights for their development and humanitarian programmes. Mr. Varriale is a member of the Bar of Naples and he holds a master's degree in human rights and conflict management from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa. He worked for the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations during the 58th session of the General Assembly in the field of disarmament and human rights, and has served as Electoral Observer of the European Union in Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In addition to his academic research, Mr. Varriale's aim is to pursue a successful career in the field of human rights advocacy.
Joong-Seop Kim January 2004-January 2005
Joong-Seop Kim is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar conducting research on human rights education in the United States. Dr. Kim is Professor of Sociology at Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, South Korea. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Hull University, U.K. and received his BA and MA from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. From 2001-2003 he directed the Center for Reunification, Peace and Human Rights, Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. He was also a Visiting Scholar at Essex University, U.K. from 1997-1999. Dr. Kim has published books on human rights and the social history including, The Korean Paekjong Under Japanese Rule: The Quest for Equality and Human Rights (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) and Human Rights in Korean Community (Orum Publishing, 2002). While at Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar, Dr. Kim will be advised by Professor J. Paul Martin.
2003-2004
Amaya Ubeda de Torres July-September 2003
Amaya Ubeda de Torres is a Ph.D. candidate at both the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) and the University Robert Schuman of Strasbourg (France). Ms. Ubeda is in the concluding stage of her doctoral dissertation, a comparative analysis of the concept of democracy in the case law of European and the Inter- American systems for the protection of human rights. She has been teaching international law at the University Complutense of Madrid for the past two years, as well as working as a lawyer for the European Court of Human Rights and serving as researcher for the Institute René Cassin. Beginning in September of 2003, Ms. Ubeda will be an associate professor at the University Robert Schuman of Strasbourg teaching international and constitutional law. Her publications are focused mainly on the American Convention on Human Rights; the European Union; and the principle of discrimination. While at Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar, Ms. Ubeda will be advised by Professor Alejandro Garro.
2002-2003
Roger Raupp Rios November 2002-July 2003
Roger Raupp Rios is a Professor of Law at the Federal University or Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate whose research is focused on a systematical examination of Affirmative Action through a comparative study between the principle of equality in Brazilian Law and the equal protection doctrine developed in American Constitutional Law. As a law professor Mr. Rios has taught Constitutional Law and Human Rights Law since 1998. As an academic researcher, Rios has studied the United States Supreme Court's equal protection doctrine to elaborate his Masters thesis research on a comparative study between the principle of equality in Brazilian Law and the equal protection doctrine facing sexual orientation discrimination. While at Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar, Mr. Rios will be advised by Professor Alejandro Garro.
Hideaki Shinoda June-December 2002
Hideaki Shinoda holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (the University of London). Currently he is a research associate at the Institute for Peace Science at Hiroshima University where his topics include theory and practice of peace-building activities. He has held various teaching positions at Utsunomiya University, Keele University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr. Shinoda received both his B.A and M.A. in Political Science at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. He has also been granted a Fulbright Research Award through which he will research US education in human rights and humanitarian operations to combine with his extensive background and experience in peace-building activities. While at Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar, Dr. Shinoda will be advised by Professor J. Paul Martin. Click here to read Dr. Shinoda's report, "Japan's Role in Peace Operations: It is Time to Be More Than a 'Free Rider' and 'Cash Dispenser'" on-line.
2001-2002
Mallika Dutt
Executive director of the organization Breakthrough, Mallika Dutt develops multimedia strategies for mainstreaming human rights and social justice through education and popular culture. While at Columbia, she is interested in exploring the connections between human rights, culture and religion, and media and technology, to identify mechanisms through which to better promote human rights values. Ms. Dutt was on the U.S. NGO Coordinating Committee for the World Conference Against Racism, and is now a program consultant at the India Center of Art and Culture in New York City, a newly formed center on South Asian visual and performing arts and contemporary affairs. Formerly she was Program Officer on Human Rights and Social Justice at The Ford Foundation. Ms. Dutt has authored several publications, including the following: "Local Action Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls" with Julie Mertus and Nancy Flowers (1999); "Claiming Human Rights: Feminism of Difference and Alliance" in Talking Visions: Multiculutral Feminism in a Transnational Age (1998); "Beijing '95: A Global Referendum on the Human Rights of Women," Canadian Women's Studies, (with Charlotte Bunch and Susana Fried). Ms. Dutt has a J.D. from New York University, and an M.I.A. from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
2000-2001
Wellington Almeida
Wellington Almeida is a journalist and a doctoral candidate in political science at São Paulo University (Brazil). Mr. Almeida is in the concluding stage of his doctoral thesis on the Brazilian "National Program of Human Rights" during the first mandate of President Cardoso (1995-1998). Mr. Almeida received his master's degree in international relations from the University of Brasilia in 1995, with a thesis addressing the role of non-governmental organizations as actors in contemporary international politics, in the context of the Second World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, June 1993). Mr. Almeida worked for 10 years at the Institute of Economics and Social Studies (INESC), one of the most important Brazilian NGOs that advocates for the rights of the indigenous populations, agrarian reform, along with World Bank Projects among others. He worked as a human rights researcher and also served as director of the INESC for two years (1996-97). Mr. Almeida is also the author of several publications, including: "Political Reform in Brazil," Brazilian Agenda for Human Development, (Brasilia: United Nations Development Program, 2000); Active Citizenship: The Experience of Small Farm in Valente (Bahia-Brazil), (Rio de Janeiro: Getulio Vargas Foundation/World Bank, 1999); Two years of Brazilian Human Rights Programs, (Rio de Janeiro: Ibase, 1998); The European Union and NGOs, (São Paulo: NGOs Brazilian Association—Abong, 1998); Globalization and Human Rights, (Brasilia: INESC, 1997).
Eva Erman
Eva Erman, a doctoral candidate in political science at Stockholm University (Sweden), is studying international human rights discourse — specifically the relationship between types of rights (e.g. positive and negative rights; individual and collective rights) and rights dichotomies, both from empirical and theoretical-philosophical points of view. Ms. Erman has a B.S. in behavioral science and political science, and an M.S. in political science, both from Stockholm University. She also completed part of her studies toward the MS degree at London's Kingston University. Ms. Erman was a Visiting Scholar at the Center during the Fall 2000 Semester. She obtained funding support for her stay from STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation and Higher Education).
1999-2000
Yohanna Kagoro Gandu
Mr. Gandu, a Fulbright Scholar and a doctoral candidate at Ahmadu Bello University (Nigeria), was a Visiting Scholar at the Center from 1999-2000. At the Center he conducted research for his doctoral dissertation, "The Violation of Widows' Reproductive Rights in Nigeria." Mr. Gandu was the 1997 recipient of a Nigerian National Competition Award for the best doctoral research proposal in the social sciences. With a strong background in sociology, Mr. Gandu has conducted extensive research on the economic crisis in Africa and its social implications for workers and other poor, the refugee crisis in Africa, the knowledge and use of contraceptives in Nigeria, as well as many other areas. He has also coordinated UNICEF-sponsored workshops and advocacy training programs for rural women on the topic of "Safe Motherhood and Child Survival in Rural Nigeria."
1997-1998
Yasemin Kepenekci
Ms. Kepenekci, a doctoral candidate at Ankara University (Turkey), was a Visiting Scholar at the Center from July 1 to December 31, 1997. A research assistant on the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Educational Law, at Ankara University, Ms. Kepenekci has written numerous articles on child abuse. During her time at Columbia and the Center, Ms. Kepenekci worked on her dissertation on human rights education in Turkey.Niccolo Figa-Talamanca
Mr. Figa-Talamanca, a doctoral candidate in international law at the University of Nottingham, England, was a Visiting Scholar at the Center from September 1, 1997 to March 31, 1998. Previous to his appointment as Visiting Scholar, Mr. Figa-Talamanca worked two years at the International Crimes Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. At Columbia he conducted research on the proposed International Criminal Tribunal, working jointly with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York City.Amy Tsanga
Prof. Tsanga, a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Law, was at the Center for the month of September 1997. During this time Prof. Tsanga continued her research on the paper "Taking Law to the People: The Experience of Zimbabwe," a study in which she analyzed the challenges confronting organizations taking on the task of transmitting law to ordinary citizens. Prof. Tsanga also presented several brown bag lectures during her time at Columbia and the Center, sharing her experience with and commitment to the Center's Africa Human Rights Education & Training Program (see Past Programs at the Center).Alexandros Yannis
Mr. Yannis, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, was a Visiting Scholar at the Center from August 25, 1997 to June 15, 1998. A recipient of the Albert Gallatin Fellowship in International Affairs for 1997-98, Mr. Yannis used his time at Columbia and the Center to work on his thesis: "State Collapse and the International System: Revisiting Sovereignty in Somalia." Mr. Yannis has been advisor to the EC Special Envoy to Somalia and Chairman of the Somalia Aid Coordination Body. He has published numerous articles and presented numerous papers throughout Europe.
