International Human Rights Faculty

The program in International Human Rights is directed by Lindsey Kingston (Department of History, Politics, and International Relations), who is assisted by an interdisciplinary curriculum group. Group members currently include: Bill Barrett (Photography), Don Conway-Long (Behavioral and Social Sciences), Mike Hulsizer (Behavioral and Social Sciences), Andrea Miller (Behavioral and Social Sciences), Paul Moriarty (Philosophy), Don Morse (Philosophy), Chris Parr (Religious Studies), Kate Parsons (Philosophy), Britt-Marie Schiller (Philosophy), Bruce Umbaugh (Philosophy), and Linda Woolf (Behavioral and Social Sciences).

International Human Rights (HRTS) is an interdisciplinary program that draws expertise from faculty across the Webster University community. Students can expect to take HRTS courses offered by instructors from a wide range of disciplines, including: political science, international relations, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, and more. Many courses required for the major, however, are offered by a core team of human rights instructors which includes:

Lindsey Kingston, Ph.D. -- Program Director
lkingston54@webster.edu

Lindsey Kingston is the director of Webster University's International Human Rights Program and an assistant professor of international human rights. Kingston teaches the core courses Introduction to Human Rights and Senior Overview, as well as a range of human rights topics classes. She directs the undergraduate human rights program, serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, and acts as faculty advisor to the student group “ONE” and the editorial team that produces the journal Righting Wrongs. Kingston is a topical expert on the issue of statelessness – a human rights violation in which a person does not have legal nationality to any country. Kingston’s additional research interests related to indigenous rights, social movements, and global responsibility have brought her to fieldwork locations throughout the United States, Thailand, the Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut, and East Africa. 

Andrea Miller, Ph.D.
andreamiller31@webster.edu

Andrea Miller is a sociologist who teaches courses in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the human rights program, including Current Problems in Human Rights and Methods of Inquiry. She coordinates the Year of International Human Rights, which brings a variety of human rights events and activities to Webster campuses worldwide. Dr. Miller’s areas of expertise are gender and sexuality, and she recently served as Program Chair for the American Sociological Association’s section on Human Rights (2008-2009). Her publications include: “Working the Boundaries: Bisexuality and Transgender on Film” (co-authored with Betsy Lucal for Cinematic Sociology, Pine Forge 2010) and “The Pedagogy of (In)Visibility: Two Accounts of Teaching about Sex, Gender, and Sexuality” (co-authored with Betsy Lucal, Teaching Sociology, July 2009).  

Paul Moriarty, Ph.D.
paulmoriarty88@webster.edu 

Paul Moriarty teaches Political Philosophy, Introduction to Human Rights, Human Rights and the Environment, Human Rights and Film, and Theories of Human Rights. His primary interests are social and political philosophy, practical ethics (particularly human rights and the environment), environmental ethics, and animal rights. Dr. Moriarty attempts to put his philosophy into practice as an active member of Amnesty International, an environmental activist, and a vegan. He believes that practical philosophy shapes the ways we live our lives and the ways we structure our social institutions. His current research is about the relationship between human rights, animal rights, and the environment.

Elizabeth Sausele, Ph.D.
esausele98@webster.edu

Elizabeth Sausele grew up in Webster Groves, just a few miles from Webster University’s Saint Louis campus. After 20 years of moving around the United States – collecting a Master’s of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Education and Intercultural Studies along the way – she is happy to be “home” and working on human rights issues. In addition to teaching Introduction to Human Rights, she also offers topics courses such as Responding to Human Rights Abuse and Human Rights Area Studies: Rwanda.

Sausele credits her interest in human rights, in part, to her fieldwork experiences in Rwanda from 2005 to 2007. After working with young adults to better understand how their experiences of war and genocide impacted their understanding of leaders, Sausele focused her attention on the study of cultural differences and problem solving. Her work centers on understanding the disparate experiences of different cultures and building collaborative systems to address the world’s most complex problems.