Human Rights / Norms

Research Interest

James Midgley

Professor of the Graduate School
School of Social Welfare

James Midgley is Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously served as Dean of the School of Social Welfare and held the Harry and Riva Specht Chair in the Public Social Services (1997-2016). He studies international social development, comparative social policy and welfare and social protection, focusing on the social services and cash transfers in developing countries.

Research Interests:

International Social Development

Comparative Social Policy and Welfare

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Eric Stover

Faculty Director
Human Rights Center, Berkeley Law School

Eric Stover is Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley. During the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, he served on several medico-legal investigations as an “Expert on Mission” to the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In the early 1990s, Stover conducted the first research on the social and medical consequences of land mines in Cambodia and other post-war countries. His research helped launch the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, which received the Nobel Prize in 1997. He has published 10 books; the most recent is Silent...

Matthew Specter

Senior Fellow
Institute of European Studies

Matthew Specter (PhD, Duke) writes on 20th century European, American and global intellectual history, especially the history of German political thought and the history of IR theory. A former tenured Associate Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, he is currently a Lecturer in History at Santa Clara University and Associate Editor of History and Theory. He is the author of Habermas: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge 2010) and The Atlantic Realists: Empire and International Political Thought Between Germany and...

Julia Tjan

Undergraduate Student
Political Economy
Goldman School of Public Policy

Julia Tjan is a third year student from the East Bay Area majoring in Political Economy with a concentration in International Trade & Development and minoring in Public Policy. She has served as a Research Assistant for Dr. Aila Matanock’s Constitutions Project sponsored by the Defense Department’s Minerva Initiative on the legal framework of security institutions and violent instability in developing countries for over a year. Currently, she is a Business and Economic Consulting intern at SGI LLC., a DC firm that specializes in environmental sustainability and evolutionary economic...

Gurbir Singh

Undergraduate Student
Political Science

Gurbir is a senior studying Political Science with a minor in Human Rights. His academic interests broadly include international politics, human rights, and international/domestic public policy. He is currently writing a thesis investigating the impact of hegemonic withdrawal on the resilience of international organizations. Gurbir has also done research on the impact of the climate crisis on global migration and the emerging refugee crisis. He plans to work in government risk analysis after graduation, before eventually going to law school. Outside of his academic interests, Gurbir...

Tanya Tandon

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Goldman School of Public Policy

Tanya Tandon is a senior at UC Berkeley majoring in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and double minoring in Public Policy and Human Rights. On campus, Tanya served as the President of the Association for Socially Responsible Business. Before coming to UC Berkeley, Tandon worked in the nonprofit sector at RESULTS in advocacy and legislative work. Her previous experience focused on international sustainable development with the US Green Chamber of Commerce, as well as inclusive sustainable tourism and CSR at Taj Indian Hotels Company Limited in Mumbai through...

Ana Singh

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Public Health
South/Southeast Asian Studies

Ana is a fourth year student double majoring in Public Health and Political Science with minors in Public Policy and South/Southeast Asian Studies. Her academic interests include religious violence and politics in South Asia, tropical infectious disease epidemiology, and depictions of racial, sexual, and religious minorities in media. Ana is fluent in English, Hindi/Urdu, and Spanish. In the past, she has conducted research on the soda tax in place in several Bay Area cities, interned at the Berkeley City Council, and worked for the Indian non-profit Tata Trusts in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Ana...

Mariano Sigifredo

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Goldman School of Public Policy

Mariano is an Argentinian senior student pursuing a B.A. in Political Science, with a concentration in comparative politics and the political economy of development, with a minor in Public Policy. He is interested in the distribute effects of fiscal rents in developing countries and the politics of economic development. He worked as a research assistant and a “Summer Research Fellow” on projects of international security and post-conflict contexts in Latin America. He has been working on an Honors thesis that seeks to analyze the impact of the variation of subnational regime types in...

Kate Ngo

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Economics
French

Kate Ngo is currently a junior from San Gabriel Valley, CA double majoring in Political Science and Economics at UC Berkeley. Her academic interests broadly include international human rights, economic development, and interstate conflict. She is also pursuing a minor in French to learn more about the language and culture. Last semester, Ngo interned at a nonprofit media and communications organization where she tracked opinion polls and helped build a database to store polling data. In her free time, you will find her reading a suspense novel or binging on the latest Korean drama.

Jolie Leung

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Political Economy

Jolie Leung is a junior pursuing a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and a minor in Political Economy. Her interests include post-conflict economic development, human rights, and socio-economic inequality, particularly in Latin America and East Asia. Since 2019, Leung has worked as a research assistant to Dr. Aila Matanock in her project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Minerva Research Initiative, researching and analyzing data on the constitutional frameworks of post-colonial nations. Aside from research, Leung teaches about current...