Current Visiting Scholars
Noah Novogrodsky
Noah Novogrodsky is Carl Williams Professor of Law & Ethics at the University of Wyoming College of Law and Director of the Center for International Human Rights Law & Advocacy. He is a visiting researcher at the Human Rights Center, where he is teaching a seven-week course with Co-Executive Director Alexa Koenig on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Novogrodsky graduated from Swarthmore College with highest honors, received an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and earned his law degree at Yale. Novogrodsky clerked for Judge Nancy Gertner of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts and held a Robert Bernstein Fellowship in 1998-99 to investigate and document human rights abuses occurring during the Eritrea/Ethiopia war. Novogrodsky then worked as an associate at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin (now Arnold & Porter LLP) in San Francisco. Before his appointment at Wyoming College of Law, Novogrodsky was an Adjunct Professor and Founding Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He has been a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Connecticut School of Law, in addition to a previous stint as a visiting scholar at the Human Rights Center. Novogrodsky’s scholarship addresses international human rights, criminal law and public health concerns. His current project is entitled, “The Many Deaths of Jamal Khashoggi.”
Sarah Zarmsky
Sarah Zarmsky joins the Human Rights Center from her post as an Assistant Lecturer and PhD Candidate with the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Her research focuses on accountability for online harm in international criminal law. Sarah also serves as Deputy Managing Editor of the international legal periodical Opinio Juris, and curates the weekly newsletter for the AI & Human Rights blog. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Sarah received her LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and her BA in Psychology with minors in Legal Studies and French from Brandeis University. She has completed internships with the International Bar Association, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice. Sarah works as an open-source researcher in her spare time and has worked on projects for the Digital Verification Unit at the University of Essex, the Cameroon Database of Atrocities, and Bellingcat. During her time with the Human Rights Center, Sarah will assist in the preparation of practitioner's’ guides for open source evidence, amongst other projects.
Past Visiting Scholars
2019–2022
Wai Wai Nu
“Human rights are for everyone. Human rights are everybody’s responsibility.”
Wai Wai Nu was a 2019-2022 visiting scholar at the HRC. Graduating from Berkeley Law in 2018, she used the resources at the HRC to further her work on the Rohingya crisis.
Nu's family is Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Burma, and has a history of advocacy. In 1990, Nu's father was elected to parliament, receiving harrassment for promoting labor rights. He was eventually setenced to 47 years in prison for "alleged state security and immigration violations" in 2005. Soon after, Nu and the rest of her family were given 17-year sentences under the same allegations.
Upon being released in 2012, Nu set out to fix Burma's legal system. After receiving her law degree, she established the Women’s Peace Network-Arakan and later co-founded Justice for women, a network of female lawyers that promotes democracy- and peace-building efforts. Her soared after initiating the #MyFriend campaign. This campaign urged participants to post photos of themselves with friends from diverse backgrounds in order to counter the widespread descrimination and hate on social media.
Here is Nu giving a brief Human Rights Day message:
2015-2016
Noah Novogrodsky, Professor of Law and Co-director of the Center for International Human Rights Law and Advocacy, University of Wyoming College of Law.
Novogrodsky co-authored (with Ruth N. Borenstein and Marc A. Hearron) “Same Sex Marriage Without Borders: The Foreign and Comparative Law Amicus Brief in Obergefell v. Hodges,” in the California International Law Journal 23, no. 2 (Winter 2015).
2015
Leila Ullrich, D.Phil candidate, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford
Rebecca Wexler, J.D. candidate, Yale Law School
Wexler authored “Convicted by Code,” in Slate’s Future Tense blog, October 6, 2015.
The article was soon cited by the ABA Journal, Ars Technica, and the Daily Dot.
2014
Elizabeth Evenson, Senior counsel, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch
2008
Aung Kyaw Soe conducted research on human rights abuses in his native Burma.
2004-5
Theoneste Rutagengwa, Rwandan activist, Visiting Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2001-02
Caroline Clara Lamwaka, journalist for the New Vision newspaper in Kampala, Uganda.
Nomfundo Walaza, clinical psychologist, and former Chief Executive Officer of The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.
Natalie Hill, attorney, Australia
Laurie Vollen, Founder and Executive Director, Life After Exoneration.
2000-01
Joseph Nevins, Associate Professor of Geography, Vassar College
Susana Kaiser, Associate Professor of Media Studies and Latin American Studies, University of San Francisco.
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