Safia Swimelar, Ph.D.

sswimelar@elon.edu

elon university

Country: United States (North Carolina)

About Me:

I am currently an Associate Professor in the department of Political Science and Policy Studies and the Coordinator of the International and Global Studies program at Elon University in North Carolina. My main areas of both research and teaching are: international relations, comparative politics, international human rights, international law, European politics, post-communist politics (specifically the Balkans), nationalism and identity politics, democratization, and LGBT rights and politics.  One of the main avenues of my research has been to examine the process of norm change in Europe and how new ideas and principles diffuse to the domestic sphere.  I had an opportunity to examine these issues as a Fulbright Scholar in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2006-07.  

Research Interests

Human Rights

International Law

European Union

Visual Politics

The Balkans

Film And Politics

LGBT Human Rights

Countries of Interest

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Croatia

Serbia

Italy

My Research:

I have published many journal articles and book chapters on the following topics: post-war Bosnia’s challenges to promote human rights and tolerance within a segregated and nationalistic education system; the effects of the international criminal trial of Slobodan Miloševic on Bosnian politics and society; the struggle for Roma rights in Europe; the role of images in the war on terror; LGBT rights and politics across the EU and specifically in the Balkans; the relationship between LGBT rights and nationalism; the relationship between human rights and images, specifically film and politics; and the effects of political film.