Past Visiting Fellows

Kurt Mills (Visiting Fellow April-May 2012)

Dr. Kurt Mills is a Senior lecturer in International Human Rights at the University of Glasgow. His main teaching and research interests are in the areas of international organisations, human rights, refugees, and humanitarianism. His regional area of interest is sub-Saharan Africa and he has conducted research in the Great Lakes region of Africa. His current research project, for which he has received grants from the British Academy and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, is on the relationship between three related sets of international human rights norms - the responsibility to protect, international criminal justice, and humanitarianism - and how they are used in international responses to conflict in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He is also involved in a project looking at the relationship between Africa and the International Criminal Court.

Read Kurt Mills' report on his Fellowship at the HRC [PDF]. 

Thomas Pegram (Visiting Fellow May-June 2011)

Thomas Pegram (NYU School of Law) www.tompegram.com was at the HRC to develop inter-disciplinary research agenda on National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and their relationship to broader processes of democratisation and human rights observance within Latin America and globally. Thomas described the fellowship as an invaluable opportunity to collaborate closely with faculty at the School of Advanced Study (SAS) as well as broaden the comparative scope of the research to incorporate NHRIs working in highly credible democratic regimes, such as the United Kingdom. His project was threefold:

• To develop a joint-project with Par Engstrom on the human rights advocacy role and impact of National Human Rights Institutions in Latin America. This project examined the linkages (and lack thereof) between NHRIs and the Inter-American Human Rights System, institutional developments over time within a cross-regional comparative framework, as well as the diverse logic underpinning NHRI norm diffusion and compliance across regions. A book proposal is currently being prepared as well as a major research grant application. This project is further intended to enhance links between the SAS and New York School of Law where the two project principals are based. It is envisaged that further activities will be undertaken at both the SAS and NYU as the project develops.
• Organise a one-day workshop for practitioners and scholars from across disciplines to engage in the sharing of perspectives and insights related to this novel institution. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) has the potential to play an important role as a vehicle to advance state compliance in the UK with human rights law and norms. See … The workshop will assist in the development of a network of practitioners,policymakers, and researchers brought together by a professional and/or scholarly interest in the ECHR. The workshop is intended to form the basis for a scholarly publication. The proceedings are also likely to be of interest to the wider current affairs and policy community.
• Turn his recently completed politics doctoral research on National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) into a book manuscript. The book is intended to feed into contemporary debate on ‘Quality of Democracy’ by demonstrating that the institutionalisation of Defensorías in Latin America is compromised by volatile processes of democratisation in Latin America, reflected in unstable rights frameworks, low-quality democracy, and insistent demands for more responsive government.

Thomas Pegram's report on his time in the School [Word]

Cath Collins (Visiting Fellows 2010-11)

Cath Collins, Associate Professor (Lecturer), School of Political Science, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile, will be visiting the School from Mid October to December 2010

Topic of Research: Human rights trials currently taking place in Latin America related to past authoritarian periods

Cath will be very busy while in the School:

One-day Seminar Event in London, 21 October 2010 : http://americas.sas.ac.uk/events/events.php?id=7435

This event is currently the subject of an application for HRC event support.  If successful, it will provide a platform for the UK launch of the trials database and observatory results to date for South America, and invite UK-based scholars to comment on the implications of findings for broader rule of law debates. 

Visiting Fellowship, mid October to end December

During this period she will work with Par to further develop and fund a second-phase comparative research agenda for the project, in consonance with the aims and objectives of the HRC in particular on human rights trials in Latin America, and its contact institutions in this field. I will also further specific academic production in the field by completing a single authored or co-authored article 

UK book launch or panel on book findings, December 2010

Her book ‘Post-Transitional Justice: Human Rights Trials in Chile and El Salvador’ is currently in press with Penn State University Press and is due for publication in August 2010.  As the book will be of such recent date, and as it was produced at the University of London out of a PhD scholarship at the same institution, the fellowship will also offer the chance to promote the book’s findings and emphasise its University connections through a small seminar type event with invited commentators.  

Clara Portela (Visiting Fellow 2009-10)

Clara Portela, Singapore Management University, used her fellowship to do her research on Targeted Sanctions: What Effects on Human Rights?

She stayed with the School for three months between May and July 2010.

Clara was the first fellow of the Human Rights Consortium and has just published her book: European Union Sanctions and Foreign PolicyWhen and Why do they Work?

Dr Portela is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University. Her profile can be viewed here: http://www.socsc.smu.edu.sg/faculty/social_sciences/claraportela.asp