Gregory Hamot, Director

Greg Hamot, professor of secondary social studies education in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the University of Iowa College of Education, is the new director of the UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR) for a two-year term. Hamot was on the committee for the 50th anniversary celebration of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that sparked the creation of the UICHR and has been involved with the center as a board member since its inception. He has also worked with the center on its Child Labor Project initiative and served as chief editor of the curriculum component of the project, assisting area teachers with the creation of six teaching modules addressing child labor issues.

Amy Weismann, Associate Director

Amy Weismann is an alumna of Bryn Mawr College (1993, A.B.) and the University of Iowa College of Law (2000 J.D. with Distinction). Amy served as a Law Clerk for the judges of the Seventh Judicial District of Iowa, and as a Legal Intern in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Amy also assisted the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice with the editing of the final judgment produced by the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal 2000 for the trial of Japanese military sexual slavery. Before law school, Amy was a humanitarian aid worker in refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia, and a resettlement caseworker for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services affiliate offices in Eastern Iowa, and managed programs for a non-profit pursuing peace and reconciliation work in Bosnia. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, Amir, a soccer coach and naturalized American citizen from Sarajevo, their daughter, Hana, and extended family.

Elizabeth Heineman, Associate Director for University Affairs

Lisa Heineman has been at the UI since 1999 and teaches courses in Germany, Europe, women, and gender. Her past research has examined gender, war, and memory in Germany; welfare states in comparative perspective (Fascist, Communist, and Democratic); and the significance of marital status for women. Out of this research came a book, What Difference Does a Husband Make: Women and Marital Status in Nazi and Postwar Germany (University of California Press, 1999) and many articles, including "The Hour of Women: Memories of Germany's 'Crisis Years' and West German National Identity" American Historical Review (1996).
With her 2002 article, "Sexuality and Nazism: The Doubly Unspeakable?" (Journal of the History of Sexuality), she began to work more intensely on the history of sexuality. In 2011, she published Before Porn was Legal: The Erotica Empire of Beate Uhse (University of Chicago Press) and The History of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights (editor, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).
Professor Heineman received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. She is the 2010 recipient of the AICGS/DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies.

Burns H. Weston, Senior Scholar

Following his resignation after six years as UICHR founding director on December 31, 2004, and in recognition of his worldwide reputation as a respected teacher and scholar of international human rights, Professor Weston was named lifetime Senior Scholar of the UI Center for Human Rights. The author of many books and articles in the field, his most recent books include The Future of International Human Rights (Transnational Publishers, Inc., 1999; with Stephen P. Marks); Child Labor and Human Rights: Making Children Matter (Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2005); and Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action (University of Pennsylvania Press, 3d ed. 2006; with Richard Pierre Claude). Also noteworthy are his essay "Human Rights" in the 2005 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and his award-winning textbook International Law and World Order: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (Thomson-West, 4th ed. 2006; with Richard A. Falk, Hilary Charlesworth, and Andrew L. Strauss). For further details, visit Burns Weston's website.

Joan Nashelsky, Administrative Services Coordinator

Joan has been with the UICHR since 2005, starting out as a volunteer. She has a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Maryland and has many years of experience in medical librarianship. At the UICHR, Joan manages the One Community, One Book Program; works on publicity and promotion for projects and assists with grant writing and research. She and her husband  moved to Iowa City in 2003.

Kelsey Kramer, Certificate Advisor

Kelsey Kramer, Human Rights Certificate Program Advisor

Kelsey received her BA in English and creative writing with a minor in music from the University of Iowa, and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in sacred music. She brings a wealth of diverse experiences, including: work as a radio deejay, teaching conversational English to university students in the Middle East, and work as an academic editor for the University of Iowa Honors Program.