About

Professor Michael Penn is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is the only professor from a liberal arts college ever to serve as a member of the faculty for the UN Leaders Programme, which trains director level UN officers. In addition to his service to the UN, Michael has addressed audiences of scholars, NGO representatives, and diplomats on the role of psychology in the promotion and protection of human rights in scores of countries across every continent. While on sabbatical from 1998-2000, Michael lived in Switzerland and served as one of the architects of the UN-funded Education for Peace project that was delivered to thousands of children and youth in Bosnia-Herzegovina following the war. Prior to that, in 1994, he was among a handful of men invited to participate in the United Nations/ECE High Level Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Fourth World Conference on Women. He has also been invited by the government of Greenland, as well as Great Britain’s Secretariat for the Commonwealth of Nations to consult and lecture on ways to reduce violence against women and girls. In terms of scholarship, Michael has authored or co-authored four books – two of which address important problems in the field of human rights. In addition to influential books, Michael has published scores of chapters and articles in some of the most prestigious outlets in the field of human rights. These include publications in the Human Rights Quarterly, the Cambridge Handbook of Human Rights, and the recent volume on Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Rights, published by Emerald Press. His most recent book, which is currently in press (Oxford: George Ronald), is titled: “Our Common Humanity: Reflections on the Reclamation of the Human Spirit”.