Elazar Barkan
Elazar Barkan is a Professor of International and Public Affairs and the Director of the Human Rights Concentration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He was the founding director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague. Elazar served on ISHR’s board of directors before becoming ISHR’s co-director in 2007 and director in 2008. Previously, he served as chair of the History Department and the Cultural Studies Department at the Claremont Graduate University, where he was the founding director of the Humanities Center. Elazar is a historian by training and received his PhD from Brandeis University. His research interests focus on human rights and on the role of history in contemporary society and politics and the response to gross historical crimes and injustices. His human rights work seeks to achieve conflict resolution and reconciliation by bringing scholars from two or more sides of a conflict together and employing historical methodology to create shared narratives across political divides.
Kristina Eberbach
Kristina Eberbach is director and co-developer of the University Human Right Education in Myanmar project is the director of education at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. ISHR education programs include the Human Rights Studies M.A. program, an undergraduate human rights major and concentration, and a human rights summer certification program. Prior to assuming her current role, she was program coordinator for ISHR's human rights capacity-building program. In addition to her work at ISHR, Kristina has designed and facilitated human rights capacity-building trainings for members of civil society and government officials in Iraq and Colombia and has undertaken research, reporting, and advocacy work in Kenya, South Africa, and Northern Uganda. Her research interests focus on human rights in conflict and transitional contexts and capacity-building/education. Kristina holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Benedict Fleming
Benedict Fleming (Ben) is the project lead and co-developer of the University Human Rights Education in Myanmar program for the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University in New York City. He was a visiting lecturer in International Human Rights and Public International Law at Mandalay University School of Law in January and February 2014, and spent an additional five weeks conducting a capacity assessment of numerous law departments throughout Myanmar. Ben was Legal Officer in the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (UNAKRT/ECCC) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and has worked in the anti-corruption and litigation offices of OSJI. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.
Bassam Khawaja
Bassam Khawaja is a third year law student at Columbia Law School, the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and the incoming Leonard H. Sandler Fellow at Human Rights Watch. He has previously worked at Human Rights Watch, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the New York Legal Aid Society, the Advocates for Human Rights, and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. He has lived and worked extensively in the Middle East, and his areas of focus include civilians in armed conflict and the rights of refugees.
Sarah Knuckey
Sarah Knuckey joined Columbia Law School in July 2014 as faculty co-director of the Human Rights Institute, director of the Human Rights Clinic, and the Lieff Cabraser Associate Clinical Professor of Law. She is an international human rights lawyer, professor, and special adviser to the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. She has carried out fact-finding investigations and reported on human rights and armed conflict violations around the world, including in Afghanistan, Brazil, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, and the United States. Her work has addressed issues such as unlawful killings, armed conflict, sexual violence, corporate accountability, extractive industries, and protest rights. Her academic research interests include human rights methodologies, critical perspectives on human rights, new weapons technologies, transparency norms, and post-traumatic stress disorder and resilience.
Columbia University Advisory Board Members
Elazar Barkan - Professor of International and Public Affairs, Director of SIPA's Human Rights Concentration, Director of Columbia's Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Kristina Eberbach - Project Director and co-developer, University Human Rights Education in Myanmar; Director of Education Programs, Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Benedict Fleming - Project Lead and co-developer, University Human Rights Education in Myanmar
Risa Kaufman - Executive Director of the Human Rights Institute; Lecturer-in-Law
Sarah Knuckey - Faculty co-director, Human Rights Institute; Lieff Cabraser Associate Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Human Rights Clinic
Andrew Nathan - Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science; Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights
David L. Phillips - Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights, Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Andrew Scherer - Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University; Policy Director Impact Center for Public Interest Law, New York School of Law
For questions or more information, please email humanrightsed@columbia.edu
