British-Lebanese human rights lawyer and St Hugh’s College alum, Amal Clooney, is the latest to be appointed a Visiting Assistant Professorship at the Blavatnik School of Government. Clooney, who is also the wife of Academy Award winner, George Clooney, has worked for years as a barrister to promote free speech, free press, and end sexual violence and persecution. Now, she is hanging up her protesting banner and putting down the gavel to teach the next generation of world leaders here in Oxford.
Clooney told Yahoo News that she is “honoured to be back at Oxford, this time not as a student, but as a professor”. This isn’t the first time Clooney has donned a professor’s gown. The activist has held the position of visiting faculty member and senior fellow at Columbia School’s Human Rights Institute since 2015, where she collaborated with fellow Oxford graduate and International Criminal Court(ICC) judge, Sarah Cleveland. Clooney spoke of the “privilege to have this opportunity to engage with the next generation of global leaders and to contribute to the vibrant academic community at Oxford”.
This new role at the Blavatnik School of Government comes as a great pivot from her previous work with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which she offered legal advice to the ICC and the United Nations following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. She has also been outspoken on potential Israeli war crimes in the recent conflict on the Gaza Strip. Just last year, she published an expert report with the Financial Times confirming Israel’s actions against Palestine as “crimes against humanity”, after working with the ICC to come to this unanimous ruling.
Alongside her work with these international organisations, Clooney highlighted how she “looks forward to collaborating with both the faculty and students to advance access to justice around the world”. She will join former British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, at the faculty, which offers teaching to both graduate and DPhil students.