Staff News

February 2023

• Joseph Shiovitz is starting a new position as US Legal Intern with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and will be collecting and analyzing data for a report on human rights abuses at immigration detention facilities.

​November 2022 ​

• Joseph Shiovitz  will be presenting his research "Citizen storytellers: A micro-level analysis of the Narrative Policy Framework at a public hearing" on November 5 at NECOPA 2022 and January 12 at Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR) 2023 at the University of Denver
• Joseph Shiovitz  has posted a new blog entry on the AI blog:   Role of AI in Mass Surveillance of Uyghurs

June 2022

• Joseph Shiovitz has been accepted to a virtual summer internship with the South African think tank Institute for Global Dialogue to explore international relations, diplomacy, and conflict resolution.

May 2022

• Julia Bolotovsky assisted with conducting research for a report on community resilience on organized crime while interning at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. The report can be accessed here. Additionally, Julia's Honors Capstone, which focused on deficiencies in Guatemalan criminal justice institutions when detecing and prosecuting sextortion crimes, has been nominated for the Honors Outstanding Capstone Award.
• Arlinda Xhuveli has been hired as a Discovery Analyst at the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

April 2022

• Marie-Michelle Strah is a recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Teaching Prize at John Jay College. She won the 2021 Digital Innovation award at John Jay College for her course on disinformation, cybercrime and extremist violence and is the 2021-2022 Online Faculty Fellow. Her students praise her for her innovative, inclusive, accessible course designs and caring attention to their individual learning questions. This year, in addition to teaching enrolled students, Dr. Strah has taught faculty development seminars focused on digital innovation, global education, equity, and accessibility, infusing much-needed tools and strategies into the college’s goals towards truly inclusive teaching.
  Click on these links to hear, read, and learn more about Michelle’s teaching and advocacy towards accessible, digital, global, and justice-forward learning:
  • Digital Innovation Demo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tpat1i85xoo20cw/10-6-21_Digital_Innovation_Demo.mp4?dl=0
  • Podcast with Dr. Allison Pease on the 2022 Distinguished Teaching Prize https://anchor.fm/teaching-and-learning-center/episodes/Distinguished-Teaching-Prize-2022---interview-with-Marie-Michelle-Strah-e1gs0tv
  • Presentation at the 2021 CUNY IT Conference on AI and Human Rights: Technology and Innovation in Criminal Justice: https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/cis/cuny-it-conference/#1608749223682-0081b33e-2a96

March 2022

• Julia Bolotovsky has recently been accepted to the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals, where she will pursue a Master's in International Development. She is very thankful for all of the opportunities provided at the Center for International Human Rights and hopes to continue working on addressing human rights violations aboard.

February 2022    

• Joseph Shiovitz will be co-author on a paper being presented in April 2022 at the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) annual conference on the topic of federal OIG departments and whether their shifting priorities between investigations and audits are based either on merit or publicity. 
• Julia Bolotovsky contributed to a recently published report by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. While interning at the GITOC during the Fall 2021 semester, she was able to assist with conducting research on illicit economies and armed conflict, specifically in Northern Mozambique, the Sahel region, and Colombia.

January 2022

• Marie-Michelle Strah was a host for faculty development day and presented on algorithm justice and design justice to help teach about the overlap of human rights and AI. She was also invited to be part of the ad-hoc committee for the UNODC for the elaboration of a convention on information and communication technologies for the furtherance of criminal purposes.

November 2021

• Nerve Macaspac will be giving a presentation on civilian protection at a virtual conference next month for the Unarmed Civilian Protection & Accompaniment (UCP&A) Community (https://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/component/pages_np/freeform/2021-08-26-16-09-29).
• Marie-Michelle Strah was selected to speak at the CUNY IT conference this month (https://events.govtech.com/CUNY-Virtual-IT-Conference.html) as the John Jay College representative. She will be speaking about AI and ethics in relation to education and criminal justice.
• Arlinda Xhuveli was part of the Secretariat for the Global Initiviate Conferenc

October 2021

• Marie-Michelle Strah was called to testify to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Disability Subcommittee as an expert witness on military sexual trauma, conflict associated sexual violence, disability rights and victims’ access to online hearings, digital evidence and courts. The hearing can be found here and the associated documentation can be accessed here. Additionally, here is Dr. Strah's written statement.
• Arlinda Xhuveli co-authored a report on Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) for person with Substance Use Disorder (SUDS) worldwide (Drug Control Strategy, International Criminal Justice) that just got published at John Jay Cuny Academic Work (to Publication and Research). She and four other partners will be presenting this report next month in Chicago at a conference for the American Society of Criminology. The publication can be accessed here 

August 2021

• Marie-Michelle Strah was selected to be John Jay's Online Faculty Fellow for the 2021-2022 academic year. This post entails working alongside the Office of the Provost and the Department of Online Education to to help plan and execute the college’s digital transformation strategic plan leveraging her background in counterterrorism, disability rights, workforce development, emerging crimes and innovation. This will expand the college’s capacity to deliver not only coursework in human rights, social justice and cyber-enabled criminal justice matters, but methodologies that honor human rights and are inclusive of disabilities and trauma-informed populations.

May 2021

• Adriana Michilli, former CIHR RA, received her Ph.D. (officially her Doctor Europaeus in Law) at the University of Padua Human Rights Centre.
• Marie-Michelle Strah was selected as the winner of John Jay's Digital Innovative Teaching Award for her creative use of Milanote as a teaching tool in her ICJ380 course for the Spring 2021 semester.

April 2021

• Nerve Macaspac was the recipient of a $2.5 M research grant awarded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for the project "Creating Safer Space: Strengthening Civilian Protection Amidst Violent Conflict" on which he is a co-investigator.

March 2021

• Timothy Botros co-authored two intelligence and analysis reports titled that were published by the Counterterrorism Group (CTG): "The Propaganda Project: How Groups are Funding Social Media Propaganda that Targets the United States" and "Foreign Bitcoin Donation Reveals Challenges and Opportunities in Combating DEV Financing."

January 2021

• Alexandra Johnson has been appointed Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Human Rights Review.
• Timothy Botros co-authored an intelligence and analysis report titled "Insider Threat Within Law Enforcement" and "Hard Lessons Learned: Analysis of Immediate Failures and Inconsistencies with U.S. Capitol Security" that were both published by the Counterterrorism Group (CTG).

January 2019

• Lorena Villavicencio received a promotion at her job. She was promoted to a Literacy Support Specialist for an Adult Education program at a nonprofit. She oversees about 15 ESOL and HSE/GED classes. She works with immigrants and disadvantaged adults in the Brooklyn area. 

November 2018

• Jennifer Hirst was published in a journal, Applied Cognitive Psychology. 
• Lorena Villavicencio presented her undergraduate research at poster session for the 2018 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting

May 2018

• Remy Linback was hired by RFK Human Rights as a graphic designer. 

September 2017

• Remy Linback was accepted at RFK Human Rights as an intern for the semester.

September 2016    

• Timur Insanally worked for the DoD Expert on Human Trafficking, met Secretary of State John Kerry and provided suggestions to him, staff, and the DoD CTIP Task Force on how to continue to combat modern-day human trafficking (provided a concrete suggestion for the DoD to monitor fraudulent employment advertisements on the web). He won first place in a joint Princeton + Carnegie Heinz University Public Service Weekend Conference (the majority were Ivy League students). The students were tasked with creating a policy suggestion that is going to be sent to the next President of the United States. The first place winner would receive the opportunity to work with the next president on such policy. Timur chose human trafficking as the national policy - created in a two-minute video. As a DoD Human Trafficking expert, he created a leadership toolkit for military commanders, directors, and service members to follow as an instructive guide on what to be aware of in their COCOM, how to respond when receiving a credible report of human trafficking, and why human trafficking is pertinent to their mission and readiness. 

July 2016    

• George Andreopoulos was invited to The Security Brief hosted by Paul Viollis. He provided his points on GITMO on issues ranging from enhanced interrogation techniques to the president's ability to shut it down and the direct effect to the American taxpayer. (Episode 91: The REAL story behind Gitmo https://player.fm/series/the-security-brief/ep-91-the-real-story-behind-gitmo).
• George Andreopoulos was a chair, discussant, and presenter at the CISS-ISA Conference 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Daniel Golebiewski was a chair and presenter at the CISS-ISA Conference 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Daniel Golebiewski is a Contributing Editor for New Eastern Europe.

May 2016    

• Katherine Azcona has been accepted to various law schools, such as New York Law School, St John's University, Rutgers, Cardozo, Hofstra, and CUNY  Law School. She has committed herself to CUNY Law School and will begin her studies in the fall of 2016. 
• Grace Theresa Agalo-Os is the new Student Council President for 2016-2017. She also was accepted to the LSAT Prep program at John Jay College.
• Timur Insanally was accepted to George Mason University Institute of Economics and International Affairs as a fellow recipient for the summer. As part of the fellowship, he will be providing assistance to the Department of Defense on human trafficking and border control and other projects in partnership with the Department's Global Centurion Foundation.
• Rocio Maradiegue was inducted into the Political Science Honor Society and will graduate with cum laude. She will also begin her MA studies in European International Law at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.
• Marina Kumskova presented her paper titled, "Portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing," at the Carnegie Council.

March 2016    

• Research Assistants from the Center for International Human Rights (Erick Esquivel, Rocio Maradiegue, Tannuja Rozario, Lodoe Gyatso, Timur Insanally, Grace Theresa Agalo-os, and Jeffery White) received an Outstanding Delegation Award for the 2016 National Model UN Conference as representatives of the Czech Republic. 
• George Andreopoulos attended International Studies Association Annual Conference in Atlanta as a chair, discussant, and presenter on numerous panels.
• Daniel Golebiewski presented his paper, "Peaching Peace and Human Rights: The Role of Comunità di Sant’Egidio in African Conflicts," at International Studies Association Annual Convention in Atlanta.
• The Center for International Human Rights will conduct the following two research projects for the US Department of State's Diplomacy Lab Project for the Fall 2016 semester: Understanding Local Peace Agreements and Conflict Prevention; History of U.S. Military Assistance. 

February 2016    

• Marina Kumskova began interning with the United Nations Security Council Monitor with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), where she does research on militarization, WPS financing, as well as monitors the work of the Security Council on gender issues. Furthermore, she developed and lead the project on WPS Commitments vs. Actions of the Permanent 5 of the Security Council from the period of 2010-2015.

December 2015    

• Marina Kumskova performed research with Shuki Cohen on the Attitudes of American citizens towards Arab people.

November 2015    

• Ali Haxhijaj was accepted as an intern at the Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee in New York where he counsels and mentors 6th to the 8th-grade students from St. Demetrios Astoria School. 

October 2015    

• Adriana Michilli became a Consular Affairs Assistant at the British Consulate in New York where her main responsibility is to provide passport and citizenship assistance to British Nationals living, working, or visiting the United States.

September 2015    

• Daniel Golebiewski became Lead Students Editor and a Director for E-International Relations, “the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics."
• Lodeo Gyatso began interning at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
• Marina Kumskova began her MA in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University.
• Daniel Golebiewski began his Ph.D. studies in Political Science at the Graduate Center (CUNY) with a Five-Year Tuition Fellowship and under the advisement of Dr. George Andreopoulos. He also became a graduate assistant at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center.

September 2014 to August 2015    

• Taniya Dewan was accepted to the Office of Administration, Executive Office of the President Internship Program.
• Tricia Ramcharit received the Thurgood Marsha Scholarship.
• Tricia Ramcharit was accepted to an internship with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s NYC Office.
• Rocio Maradiegue studied abroad in Santander, Spain, through CUNY with the College of Staten Island. She took classes in Spanish literature, history, culture, and language. 
• Tricia Ramcharit was awarded the Rising Star Fellowship.

June 2014    

• Ana Paredes was offered a position as a Presidential Intern in the Office of the President at John Jay College, which she will begin in August.

May 2014    

• Ana Paredes was inducted into The National Honor Society in Psychology, Psi Chi.

January 2014    

• Taniya Dewan became an Intern at the U.S. Marshals Office.
• Taniya Dewan was accepted into New York University and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree.

December 2013    

• Imtashal Tariq is the recipient of STOCS (Study/Travel Opportunities for CUNY Students) Scholarship for her internship and study aboard course in Athens, Greece for the Winter of 2014. While Ms. Tariq will be interning at Amnesty International assisting refugees in Greece, she will also be studying at The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

November 2013    

• Ana Paredes was selected to be a member of John Jay’s Chapter of the PSI CHI International Honor Society.
• Imtashal Tariq volunteered for UN Women for the UNiTE campaign event on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
• Imtashal Tariq presented her independent research at the 22nd Annual National McNair Research Conference at the University of Wisconsin. Ms. Tariq’s research focuses on acculturation and South Asian Males views towards violence against women.
• Katherine Azcona will attend the 5th Annual Millennium Campus Conference presented by the Millennium Campus Network at Northeastern University.

October 2013    

• Imtashal Tariq became the student representative of the Student and Faculty Disciplinary committee at John Jay College, where Ms. Tariq will hear any charges, accusations, or allegations against students or faculty members.
• Yumna Khan became the President of the South Asian Youth Leadership in her Assembly District 44.

September 2013    

• Yumna Khan joined the Board of the Institute for Conscious Global Change, Youth Association as a Permanent Committee of ICGC. 
• Ksenia Armstrong began interning with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

August 2013    

• Ana Paredes began interning for Esperanza as a part of the John  Jay-Vera  Fellowship Program.
• Adriana Michilli worked at the United States Consulate General in Naples, Italy from  May-August  2013. Throughout her three month posting, she rotated within the offices of Public Affairs, Consular Affairs and the Political-Economic Section. During this time, she helped draft various public diplomacy documents, local press releases focusing on Italian-American cultural relations, developed analytic research summaries on the criminality of immigrant groups in Italy and also helped to translate interviews from Italian to English for visa applicants. 
• Ana Paredes participated in a Global Public Health and Medical Brigade in Panama with fellow CUNY students.

July 2013    

• Yumna Khan became an assistant trainer with the Board of Elections teaching communication procedures, rules, and duties to election inspectors. 
• Ana Paredes was selected as the recipient for the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship.
• Daniel Golebiewski’s essays have been published in the following journals:“With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility: Keeping a Human Finger on the Killer Robot’s Trigger.” Small Wars Journal.“The Humanitarian Interventions of the UN.” Yale’s The Politic.“The World Within Your Hand’s Reach.” The Oxonian Globalist.“The Blue Helmet and the Olive Branch.” The Oxonian Globalist.

June 2013    

• Daniel Golebiewski became Editor-at-Large and Social Media Editor for e-International Relations, the world’s leading website for students of international politics that publishes original content including articles, blogs, student essays, book reviews, and research news (www.e-ir.info).

May 2013    

• Ana Paredes completed a semester as a Research Assistant for Dr. Matthew Johnson’s Wrongful Conviction Research Group.
• Ana Paredes completed her service as a Student Participant in the New York State Prison-to-College Pipeline Program, which began in September 2012.
• Imtashal Tariq will be interning for the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations under Ambassador Masood Khan in Security Council.
• Prof. George Andreopoulos recently interviewed and was quoted in a Star-Ledger article on sex trafficking.
• Daniel Golebiewski graduated from John Jay College with a BA in Political Science and double minors in History and English. He also received magna cum laude, as well as honors in Political Science (4.0 GPA).
• Yumna Khan graduated from John Jay College with a BA in Political Science and a minor in History. She has also received Cum Laude, as well as honors in Political  Science (3.89 GPA). 
• Yumna Khan presented her Center for International Human Rights paper, Can Islam and LGBT Human Rights Co-Exist? Assessing Religion’s Role in Sexuality on the Politics of Human Rights Panel in John Jay College’s Undergraduate Student Research and Creativity Conference.
• Yumna Khan published her article, “Hooked on Adderall” in The Sentinel, John Jay College Newspaper.

April 2013    

• Daniel Golebiewski accepted to study MA in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University-Graduate School of Arts & Sciences starting this fall.
• Imtashal Tariq and Ana Paredes have been accepted to the Vera Fellowship at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
• Yumna Khan participated in the UNICEF CUNY Challenge, Fulfilling the Promise, taking on the birth registration challenge to eradicate the lack of birth registration among children in the world. Her team, Advocates for Activism developed a proposal to increase birth registration in South Asia and tackle child marriage, human trafficking, and child labor. Her team also made a one minute pitch of their proposal.  

March 2013    

• Taniya Dewan, Yumna Khan , Imtashal Tariq, Ana Paredes and Daniel Golebiewski completed with the John Jay College Model United Nations Team at the National Model United Nations Conference and their performance contributed to the team winning the Distinguished Delegation Award. 
• Daniel Golebiewski was acknowledged in Dr. Michael J. Pfeifer’s Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South (University of Illinois Press, 2013) as an “enthusiastic and capable research assistant.”
• Lydia Boyer represented the Mount Holyoke Club of New York at the Mount Holyoke College  Alumnae Association Northeast Regional Council.
• Lydia Boyer spoke on the “International Business and Development” panel at the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association Student-Alumnae Networking Fair. 
• Daniel Golebiewski received the E-International Relations Essay Award for his senior thesis, “Intercultural Communication and Transnational Protests Circling the Modern Olympic Games: A Cross-Sectional Study Between the Cold War and The Post-Cold War Era”. His paper can be accessed through the e-journal here or through SSRN here.  

February 2013    

• Katherine Azcona attended the 2013 National Model United Nations Conference and participated as a researcher. She won a Position Paper Award for International Atomic Energy Agency as the State of Angola. The John Jay College  UNSA  team won 2nd place.

January 2013    

• Yumna Khan worked as a staff writer for the John Jay Sentinel newspaper, publishing and editing news clips. Due to her interest in mental health, her most recent publication here was on the use of drugs such as Adderall and college students.
• Adriana Michilli began interning with the Counter Narcotics Smuggling Unit of the US Department of Homeland Security.
• Shelby Prue began interning with the Water Front Commission of New York as an Intelligence Intern.
• Ana Paredes was selected as the Recipient for the Upper Division Scholarship.

December 2012    

• Daniel Golebiewski received John Jay College’s Young Scholars Award for his “Rioting and Social Media in the Comparative Cultural Contexts: Philadelphia and London.”

September 2012    

• Adriana Michilli began interning with the Human Trafficking/Alien Smuggling Group of the US Department of Homeland Security. As part of an Organizing Fellow for Organizing for America (OFA), she attended a Women for Obama fundraising event at the Chelsea Piers Sports Center on March 19th, 2012 with First Lady Michelle Obama and New York Giants player Victor Cruz. She had the opportunity to Meet Mrs. Obama at the event.

August 2012    

• Lydia Boyer began interning at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) with the Human Rights Unit.

June 2012

• Lydia Boyer was elected to serve a 1-year term on the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club of New York Board of Directors as Secretary.
• Syeda Fatima began the summer program as a Ronald H. Brown Scholar. She will be taking law courses at St. John’s University Law School and then interning with a law firm throughout the summer.
• Shelby Prue began interning with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

May 2012    

• Sarah Guillet was accepted into the inaugural class of Pinkerton Community Fellowship at John Jay College. As a Pinkerton Fellow, she is working in the youth service field of nonprofit community-based organizations. She was placed with the Lasting Investments in Neighborhood Connections (LINC) as part of the Children Aid Juvenile Justice Programs where she is co-leading a work crew of youth during the LINC summer program. She will also be developing a small group of LINC youth to who will form and implement advocacy projects for their issues and interests.

April 2012    

• Lydia Boyer returned to her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, and gave a talk to undergraduates in the International Relations Department about writing an honors thesis: the process, finding an appropriate topic, doing the research, and answering questions from the students about how to get started. She had been awarded the Book Prize for Outstanding Honors Thesis in International Relations in 2010 for her honors thesis “Arms Sales, the Legislative Veto, and the American Public: An Examination of the Impact of the Legislative Veto on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East from 1974-1983.”

March 2012    

• Sarah Guillet received the Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship for academic excellence from the CUNY Baccalaureate program.
• Sarah Guillet was a finalist for the Steamboat Fellowship.
• Leena Weedi founded a new student organization at John Jay: Students for Justice in Palestine.
• Katherine Azcona was honored to meet with First Lady Michelle Obama and New York Giants wide receiver, Victor Cruz at the Women for Obama fundraising event at the Chelsea Piers Sports Center on March 19th, 2012. She is part of an Organizing Fellow for Organizing for America (OFA).
• Ana Paredes was accepted into John Jay’s BA/MA Program for Forensic Psychology.

February 2012    

• Aferdita Hakaj, assistant director of the Center, was recently a panelist on the importance of soft power as a tool for international peace and international cooperation at the 2012 International Conference on Cultural Diplomacy and the United Nations.

September 2011    

• George Andreopoulos was asked by Encyclopedia Britannica to share a reflection on the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the 10th anniversary as part of a week-long series. His piece can be read here and the entire series can be found here.