CHRGJ is happy to announce two new visiting scholars who will join the Center this fall.

Sara L.M. Davis (known as Meg) is a visiting scholar with CHRGJ. Her research focuses on global health aid, measurement of impact of human rights on health, and health and human rights in Asia. She was the first senior human rights advisor at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At the Global Fund, she led the process of establishing minimum human rights standards for grant agreements in 140 countries that receive Global Fund support; launched a human rights complaints procedure at the Global Fund Office of the Inspector General; and published and implemented grant guidance on funding human rights programs as part of Global Fund HIV, TB, malaria and Health System Strengthening grants.

As a long-time human rights practitioner, Meg has worked with dozens of community-based organizations and networks in Asia and Africa on community-led human rights documentation, advocacy, strategic planning and organizational management. She was the China researcher at Human Rights Watch, where she authored four human rights reports, and then founded human rights group Asia Catalyst, where she is now a member of the board. She is also a member of the advisory committee for China Development Brief.

Meg earned her Ph.D. at University of Pennsylvania, and has continued active engagement in scholarship through research and visiting scholar positions at Yale University, UCLA, Columbia University, and Fordham Law School. She now consults for UNAIDS, the International Network of People Using Drugs (INPUD), Open Society Foundations, and African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), among others. She is fluent in Chinese, and also speaks French, Thai, and Tai Lue. She has a blog, http://megontheinternet.wordpress.com, and posts on Twitter @saralmdavis.

Senthorun Raj is an academic and advocate with a passion for popular culture, social justice, and law. Sen is completing his PhD and teaches at the Sydney Law School. His doctoral thesis titled “Feeling Law: Intimacy, Violence, and Queer Subjects” examines the way emotion has shaped legal responses that address the discrimination perpetrated against sexual and gender minorities.  He is currently working on completing the final parts of his dissertation as a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at NYU Law School.

Sen is a contributing writer for The Guardian. He has published numerous articles and academic papers on topics ranging from refugee law to social networking.  Sen is also an advisory board member of the sexuality, gender and diversity studies journal Writing from Below and has been a guest editor at the lifestyle websiteSameSame.

Sen is a former Churchill Fellow who completed a comparative research project on the advocacy and adjudication of sexual orientation and gender identity based asylum claims in USA, UK, and Australia. He previously worked as the Senior Policy Advisor for the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. In a governance capacity, Sen has also served on the boards of Amnesty International Australia and ACON Health.