Susan Perry

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Susan Perry

Professor, Program Director MAs in International Affairs

  • Department: History and Politics
  • Graduate Program(s): International Affairs, International Affairs, Conflict Resolution and Civil Society Development, Diplomacy and International Law
  • Office: 
    G-L18
  • Office Hours: 
    By Appointment

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Professor Susan H. Perry, a specialist in international human rights law and digital technology, teaches law and politics at The American University of Paris and directs several of the University’s graduate programs. Both a scholar and activist, Dr. Perry’s work focuses on vulnerable populations – women, children and communities in conflict – whose rights are being violated by the State, society or industry, often in breach of binding legal conventions.

Her most recent books analyze the nexus between digital technology, human rights and deliberative democracy: Illusion Pixel in French (Lemieux Editions 2015); Human Rights and Digital Technology (Palgrave 2017); and a third project under way on the digital divide in education. Dr. Perry has collaborated on several projects funded by the European Commission, and her privacy-by-design curriculum, which includes a substantive gender component, was selected by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) for the 2014 Roadmap for NIS Education Programmes in Europe. She was named an Advisory Board member of SHERPA, a Horizon 2020 European Commission grant on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in Europe.

Dr. Perry has just been named to the French Human Rights Commission (Commissions nationale consultative des droits de l'homme) for a three year term.



Education/Degrees

  • MSt in International Human Rights Law, with distinction (2007), Oxford University
  • Doctorat in Chinese Studies, mention très honorable (1998), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
  • DEA in Chinese Studies (1990), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
  • MA in East Asian Studies (1985), Yale University
  • Yale-China Fellow, Hunan, China (1985-87)
  • BA in Semiotics (1982), Minor in Chinese History, Brown University

Publications

Perry S. & Roda C. (2017) Human Rights and Digital Technology: digital tightrope. Londone: Palgrave Macmillan.

Perry S. (2015 ) Iluusion pixel. Paris: Lemieux Editions.

Perry, S., Roda, C. (2014) Teaching Privacy by Design to Non-Technical Audiences. Cyber Security and Privacy (CSP) Forum 2014. Springer CCIS Series, Vol. 470.

Perry, S., Roda, C. (2014) Privacy-by-Design Curriculum. Selected by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) for the Roadmap for NIS Education Programmes in Europe.

Roda, C., Perry, S. (2014) Mobile Phone Infrastructure Regulation in Europe: Scientific Challenges and Human Rights Protection. Environmental Science and Policy 37(2014) 204-214. Impact Factor: 3.514/5; 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.948/5.

Perry S., Roda C., Paper on Conceptualizing and Contextualizing the Changing Nature of Internet Usage in China. China and the New Internet World: The Eleventh Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC11) - Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, June 2013.

Perry et al. (2012) Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for the General Comment on the Rights of the Child and the Business Sector.

Perry (2011) “Child Soldiers: the pursuit of peace or justice for child combatants?” in Gardner and Kobtzeff (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to War: Origins and Prevention, London: Ashgate Press.

Perry (2008) “Peine de mort: reformer plutot qu’abolir”, Hommes et Libertés, Paris: Ligue des droits de l’homme, no. 142.

Perry (2006) “Legal Parameters of the Headscarf Issue in France and in Europe”, Oxford: Oxford University Monographs.

Lionnel et al. (2004) Signs special issue on "Development Cultures: New Environments, New Realities, New Strategies", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Winter, vol. 29, no.2.

Perry (2004) "L’abolition de la peine de mort en Chine", Etudes, May.

Perry (2003) "La vie associative en Chine", Etudes, October.

Conferences & Lectures

  • 'Valuing Privacy through Privacy by Design', paper presented at the Amsterdam Privacy Conference 2015, 23-26 October.
  • Panelist, IPEN Workshop 2015, Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT, Catholic University of Leuven, 5 June 2015.
  • Digital Tightrope: human rights and digital technology, Visiting Scholar, University of California at Riverside, 4 March 2015.
  • Introduction to Privacy by Design, Institute of Distributed Systems, University of Ulm, Germany, 9 March 2015.
  • Panelist (with PRIPARE partners) on Privacy-by-design Issues: requirements for training material, for Cyber Security & Privacy Forum, Athens, 21-22 May 2014.
  • Working Group on Implementation of the Obligations: Different Instruments, member, Conference on General Comment on the Rights of the Child and the Business Sector, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, IDE, Sion, Switzerland, October 2012.
  • Sustainable Development of the Global Commons, organizer and moderator of the Annual President’s Conference for the Advancement of Scholarship, The American University of Paris, Cercle de l’Union Interallié, May 2010.
  • “Demobilizing Child Soldiers in Central Africa”, keynote speaker, UNICEF/US State Department Conference on Child Soldiers, Njamena, Chad, June 2010.
  • “The Cultural Dimension of Conflict”, respondant, Bertelsmann Foundation Panel Discussion, The American University of Paris, September 2010.
  • “Killing the chicken to scare the monkey: policy drivers for the death penalty in China”, Scholar in Residence Address, University of California at Riverside, March 2009.
  • Aspen Institute Cultural Diplomacy Forum, moderator, Paris, November 2008.
  • Roundtable: Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, Human Rights Law Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, March 2008.
  • “Headscarves and human rights”, plenary address, 14th International Conference on Learning. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 26-29, 2007.
  • “Parliamentary practice: training elected women representatives from Afghanistan”, plenary address, Vital Voices initiative, hosted by the US Mission to the OECD, June 2006.
  • "Law and dissidence in China ", The Role of the (Public) Intellectual, China Center, University of California at Berkeley, April 3-4, 2004
  • "Strengthening the role of the defense lawyer in death penalty cases", Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, January 8-9, 2004.
  • "Women Practicing Development Across Cultures", International Women's Day 2002, UNESCO March 8.
  • "Quelques ambiguïtés politiques: les femmes et le chômage en Chine,” Aspects de la Protection Sociale en Chine, OECD, June 2001.
  • Roundtable facilitator for "Gendered Political Economy of Peace and Reconstruction," Women Waging Peace Research Track Symposium, Harvard University, November 2000.
  • Co-organizer (1998-2000) of the French Senate conference series on "Women, Culture and Development Practices", with funding from UNESCO, French Foreign Ministry, OECD and the Asia Foundation.
  • "Nu Shu: Women Poets of Hunan," Keynote Speaker, UCLA February 1996. 

Affiliations

  • Editorial Board, Centre Chine, EHESS
  • International Political Science Association (IPSA)
  • Association Française des Sciences Politiques (AFSP)
  • Yale-China Association 

Research Areas

  • Researcher, Reinforcing the Role of defense Lawyers in Death Penalty Cases in China, €588,000, European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, European Commission (2003-2006)
  • Institutional Partner and Researcher, PRIPARE, €1.1M grant, European Commission, (2013-2015).
  • International Law
  • Gender
  • Civil Society
  • France
  • Human rights
  • Women's rights
  • Children's rights
  • Environmental regulation
  • Governance in China
  • Digital knowledge
  • Global public policy