Current Visiting Scholars:
Jelena Pia-Comella
Ms. Pia-Comella is an Adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is also consulting with the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (GAAMAC), faculty member of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Starting her career in 1996 as a diplomat representing Andorra at the United Nations, Canada and the United States, she was part of the team that created the foreign policy of her country. From January to July 2018, she served in different capacities for civil society organizations and from June 2019 to August 2021, she served as adviser on gender, peace and security issues for the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Ms. Pia-Comella is the President of the Board of Directors of SOS-Torture/Burundi and board member and treasurer of Global Justice Center. Additionally, she is a member of the African Coordination of Human Rights for the Armed Forces (CADHA) and the Women Network on the Responsibility to Protect, Peace and Security of the British Academy for the humanities and social sciences of Leeds University. Ms. Pia-Comella holds a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University, New York and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Fribourg University, Switzerland.
Dr. Brian Dooley
Dr. Brian Dooley is Senior Advisor for US NGO Human Rights First and for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.
His recent work includes research into the Northern Ireland conflict, and reporting on human rights issues from the war in Ukraine and protests in Hong Kong.
He is the author of several books on US politics and civil rights.
Dr. Nerve V. Macaspac
Assistant Professor of Geography
Department of Political Science and Global Affairs
College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY)
Graduate Faculty
Earth and Environmental Sciences Doctoral Program
The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY)
Nerve V. Macaspac, PhD is a political geographer with a regional focus in Southeast Asia. His current interdisciplinary and ethnographic research focuses on the phenomenon of community-led peace zones, popularly known as demilitarized geographic areas, in armed conflicts. He uses the term “insurgent peace” to refer to the daily work of civilian communities in producing spaces for peace during active violence and war. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Social Science Research Council (SSRC), International Peace Research Association (IPRA), and the American Association of Geographers (AAG), Dr. Macaspac’s research contributes to our understanding of the spatialities of peace beyond the dominant definition of peace as "absence of violence." Currently, he is a Co-Investigator of “Creating Safer Spaces: Strengthening Civilian Protection Amidst Violent Conflict,” a 4-year international and interdisciplinary research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This research aims to strengthen the field of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) and community self-protection research to create safer space for more communities amid violent conflict. At CSI, Dr. Macaspac teaches Urban Geography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Introduction to Geography. He also runs GeospatialCSI, a curricular initiative that aims to build a space and community among students to produce creative, collaborative, and public-facing Urban Geography-centered inquiry and research. He received his PhD in Geography at UCLA and a Masters in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley.
Contact info: nerve.macaspac@csi.cuny.edu
Dr. Carsten Momsen
Department Head
Comparative Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, White Collar/ Economic and Environmental Criminal Law
Freie Universität Berlin
Carsten Momsen, PhD heads the Department of Comparative Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, White Collar/ Economic and Environmental Criminal Law at Freie Universität Berlin. He is an ongoing visiting scholar at the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College and holds a position as scholar in residence at New York Law School. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2016 and 2019. Dr. Momsen is a Founding Member and PI of the Berlin based “Einstein Center Digital Future” and a permanent member of the Program Committee of the international conference series "SADFE - Systematic Approaches on Digital Forensic Engineering".
In addition to various compliance issues, his projects are focused on corporate responsibility for human rights violations. His research also includes data protection issues, digital evidence, digital forensics, and the discriminatory effects of predictive policing based on the use of 'Big Data' and 'AI' and the subsequent impact on human rights.
He is the Co-Founder and Director of the first nationwide German Wrongful-Conviction Project (https://www.wiederaufnahme.com/).
Contact info: carsten.momsen@fu-berlin.de
