It is our great pleasure today to welcome Leigh Swigart as an IntLawGrrls contributor.

Leigh 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 and the Brandeis Judicial Colloquia, as well as other programs for members of the judicial and human rights communities worldwide. She 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.

Leigh’s academic work and publications have focused on language use in post-colonial Africa and recent African immigration and refugee resettlement in the United States. She 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. 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. Her current research on the place of African languages in international criminal justice represents a coming together of her early scholarly work in linguistic anthropology and her more recent engagement with international law.

Her first post will discuss accommodating speakers of African languages in international courts. Heartfelt welcome!