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Zaatari Refugee Camp

Harris Public Policy students visited Zaatari refugee camp as part of the 2018 Pearson International Conflict Seminar to Jordan, where they met with Syrian refugees leading NGO programming within the camp.

Ramin Kohanteb/The Pearson Institute

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Research and Policy

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Kathleen Cavanaugh

Executive Director

The Pozen Family Center for Human Rights

Senior Professor, University of Chicago

Kathleen Cavanaugh is a distinguished socio-legal scholar who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights and a Senior Professor in the College at the University of Chicago. In her dual role, she leads initiatives that advance human rights and social justice while also delivering interdisciplinary instruction and research on law in its social context.

Among her current research projects are “Militant Democracy and the Preventative State”, a study examining how the concept of ‘securitization of rights’ has been institutionalized in legal frameworks, and “Memory Wars & Populism”, which explores how populist and nationalist discourses in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey utilize antagonistic narratives of belonging and exclusion to impact political practice and public policy.

Among her recent publications include,“Minority Rights in the Middle East” (2013, Oxford University Press), “Rethinking What is Necessary in a Democratic Society: Militant Democracy and the Turkish State” (2016, Human Rights Quarterly), and “Unspoken Truths: Accessing Rights for Victims of Extraordinary Rendition” (2015, Columbia Human Rights Law Review).

In her consulting capacity, Dr. Cavanaugh has undertaken significant missions for Amnesty International in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and Iraq. She has also provided training and strategic guidance for various governmental and non-governmental organizations across the Middle East, including Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, and Sudan, as well as in India and the Republic of Ireland.

Dr. Cavanaugh holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science and an LLM (Distinction) from Queen’s University Belfast. Her extensive academic career includes visiting lectureships in the UK, Israel, and the US, and she has been recognized with a Fellowship at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. Her contributions to the field have significantly advanced the understanding of the intersections between law, politics, and society.