Katherine Southwick

Katherine Southwick "is working with Refugees International (RI), a humanitarian advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., to conduct research and advocacy on cases of statelessness in several countries (including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Bangladesh). She will publish her findings in RI reports and will develop strategies to raise awareness of this global problem within the U.S. government, the UN system, and other policy and media circles.  Through RI, Katherine has also conducted advocacy concerning crises in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. She has advised several organizations about the role of the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect in African peace processes.

"Katherine grew up in Africa as the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and received a B.A. and J.D from Yale University. After college, she worked for the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center  in New Delhi, India.  At the Law School, Katherine was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, student director of the Schell Center, and associate fellow of the Yale World Fellows Program.  She represented asylum-seekers in the Immigration Clinic and pursued the year-long graduate seminar, Studies in Grand Strategy.  She spent her summers working on the Milosevic trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department.  Following graduation, she worked in private practice, specializing in international arbitration.  Last year, she clerked for Judge Charles P. Sifton in the Eastern District of New York. She also worked with the Refugee Law Project in Kampala, Uganda. She has commented on Africa and human rights in major news sources, academic journals, and other research institutions."


 * Bernstein Fellowship