Global and International Studies Building, 1015
Research Summary
Emma Gilligan is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Senior Advisor to the Ambassador-At-Large for the Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) at the U.S. Department of State.
At the US State Department she is the co-founder (with Ambassador Clint Williamson) of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA), a US, UK and EU multi-lateral initiative (https://www.state.gov/ukraine-advisory-group-aca/) launched by the United States government soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in response to the commission of international crimes in the region. As senior policy lead on the Ukraine portfolio since 2020, she instigated the creation of the ACA and advised and shaped the policy direction of the Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) in relation to its support of the Office of Prosecutor General of Ukraine, its support for strategic litigation and regional civil society.
In August 2022 Gilligan received the U.S Secretary of State Performance Award for the creation of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA). (https://www.state.gov/creation-of-atrocity-crimes-advisory-group-for-ukraine).
In 2021, she also was a Task Force Member for the core committee on Afghans-at-Risk during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Gilligan has been a Kennan Fellow (2018-2019) with the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies in Washington DC and a Franklin Fellow with the U.S. Department of State (2019-2020). She was the former Director and Associate Director of the University of Connecticut’s Human Rights Institute (2011-2016) and a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of History at the University of Chicago (2003-2006). She is the author of many articles in the main-stream media and has made multiple appearances on MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Radio Liberty, Voice of America, NPR, CNBC, Christian Science Monitor and CPTV.
After completing her doctoral studies in Russian history at the University of Melbourne, Australia, she completed her book, Defending Human Rights in Russia; Sergei Kovalyov Dissident and Human Rights Commissioner, 1969-96 (Routledge, 2004). This book traces the evolution of the Soviet human rights movement from the 1960s in Moscow to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was given a 3-page review in the New York Review of Books in 2005.
Her second book, Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War (Princeton University Press, 2011) examines war crimes committed by Russian soldiers and Chechen resistance fighters against the civilian population of Chechnya. The study places the conflict in Chechnya within the international discourse on humanitarian intervention in the 1990s and the rise of nationalism in Russia. It was awarded the Best Book Award in 2012 from the Institute for the Study of Genocide.
Gilligan’s most recent book (forthcoming with Brill Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Series) titled War Crimes and Moral Harm: Litigating the Russo-Chechen Wars analyses the methods employed by Chechen judges to grant moral compensation to victims of the second Russo-Chechen war. It raises intriguing questions about exactly how these local legal strategies developed and why they received a positive hearing from the Chechen judiciary.
At Indiana University, Professor Gilligan teaches courses on the history of human rights, international human rights law, genocide after the Second World War and global institutions.
Educational Background
- Ph.D., University of Melbourne
- Bachelors (Honors), University of Melbourne
- Oxford University, Law School, Summer Intensive Program in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, 2010
- Salzburg University, Austria, School of Law, Summer Intensive Program in International Criminal Law, 2009
Regions of Interest
- Eastern Europe
- Russia/Ukraine
Research Topics
- War crimes in Chechnya and Ukraine
- International human rights movements
- Contemporary Russian studies.
Representative Publications
- Gilligan, E. L. (forthcoming with Brill Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Series, the Hague, 2025) War Crimes and Moral Harm: Litigating the Russo-Chechen Wars,
- Gilligan, E. L. “A Call for Collective Punishment, LGBTQI in Post-conflict Chechnya,” Georget. J. Int. Aff. Parts 1 & II, September 4 and 11, 2020.
- Gilligan, E. L “Chechen Compensation Cases: War Crimes, Domestic Litigation and Moral Harm in the Russian Federation,” Journal of Comparative Law (Vol. 2, 2020) pp 37-93.
- Gilligan, E. L. “Propaganda and the Question of Criminal Intent: the Semantics of the Zachistka,” Europe-Asia Studies Vol. 68, Issue 6, 2016, pp. 1036-1066.
- Gilligan, E. L.Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War (Princeton University Press, 2010) Institute for the Study of Genocide Book Award, 2011.
- Gilligan, E.L. Defending Human Rights in Russia: Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and Human Rights Commissioner 1969-2003 (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2004)
- Gilligan, E. L, “The Costs of Peace in Chechnya,” Current History, Vol. 114, No 774, October 2015 pp 266-271
- Gilligan, E. L, “Refashioning the Dissident Past: Politics and Resistance in the Putin Era,” Russian Review, 74, No. 4, October 2015 pp 559-665
- Gilligan, E. L, “The Origins and Evolution of Violent Discourse in the Russo-Chechen Wars,” Europe-Asia Studies (forthcoming, 2016)
- Gilligan, E. L, “Sanctioning Russia: Human Rights, Magnitsky and the Crisis in Ukraine,” Demokratizatsiya, (Spring 2016)
- Gilligan, E. L “Chechnya and the Paradox of 9/11” in States of War Since 9/11: Terrorism, Sovereignty and the War on Terror (Routledge, United Kingdom, 2014) pp 47-67
- Gilligan, E. L “Redefining Humanitarianism: The Historical Challenge of R2P,” Journal of Human Rights,Volume 12, Issue 1, 2013
- Gilligan, E. L “The Human Rights Ombudsman in Russia: The Evolution of Horizontal Accountability,” Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 32, Number 3, August 2010, pp. 575-600
- Gilligan, E. L “The Story of Chechnya,” Journal of Human Rights, Vol 8, Number 4, 2009 pp 429-439