Visiting Scholars Bios

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-January 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.”

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.