Leigh Swigart
Brandeis University, International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, Director of Programs in International Justice and Society
Leigh Swigart is director of Programs in International Justice and Society at the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life of Brandeis University. She oversees the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, the only regular event that convenes members of the international judiciary across a wide spectrum of geographic and subject matter jurisdictions for confidential conversation and debate about the roles and challenges of this emerging professional group. She also organizes the Brandeis Judicial Colloquia series, which brings together international and national judges for dialogue about the growing intersections between their spheres of work. Past Judicial Colloquia have been held in West Africa, North America, South America, Israel, and India, as well as with international criminal judges and Congolese civilian and military judges on the topic of adjudicating sexual violence cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Swigart is the coauthor, with Center Director Daniel Terris and Cesare Romano, of The International Judge: an Introduction to the Men and Women Who Decide the World’s Cases (2007, Brandeis University Press and Oxford University Press). Her academic work and publications have focused on the challenges of language diversity in international criminal courts and tribunals; language use in post-colonial Africa; and African immigration and refugee resettlement in the United States. Her current research focuses on how the International Criminal Court is handling the array of challenges associated with the accommodation of African language speakers in its investigations, in the courtroom, and in its outreach programming to affected regions and victims. Swigart has wide experience in international education, including tenure as director of the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, and she has worked in the field of international literacy and indigenous language promotion as well. Holding a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington, Swigart is a two-time Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellowship for Anthropological Research.
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