Amy Caroline Rothschild, PhD, JD
About Me
I am a legal anthropologist whose work explores how law operates as a social and moral practice rather than a purely technical system. My research focuses on justice, memory, and post-conflict societies, with long-term ethnographic engagement in Timor-Leste.
Across my work, I am interested in the limits of legal solutions to deep social harm and in how legal institutions shape everyday life, political belonging, and moral categories long after violence has ended.
I teach interdisciplinary courses on law and justice, qualitative research methods, and human rights, and I am deeply committed to inquiry-driven, experiential pedagogy.
This site brings together my research, teaching, and ongoing projects.
Biography
I am a sociocultural anthropologist and sociolegal scholar, with a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD from UCSD (I received my BA at U Penn). I specialize in questions of transitional justice, human rights, genocide, and memory. I currently work as associate professor of sociolegal studies at Ithaca College.
I have engaged in long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Timor-Leste on the politics and processes of remembrance of the Indonesian occupation from 1975-1999, and have published articles and book chapters on this research. My most recent publication on Timor-Leste focuses on ‘dark tourism’ in the country from the perspective of international visitors.
During and between my two post-graduate degrees in law and anthropology, I lived and worked in a variety of countries in the Global South, including India, Eritrea, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Ghana. I worked primarily in the fields of human rights and grassroots development. During this time I also consulted for the World Bank on a project based in West Papua.
At Ithaca College, I teach interdisciplinary courses on Law and Society; Human Rights and Genocide; and Qualitative/Socio-legal Research Methods. I have previously lectured at the University of California San Diego, where my classes included: Culture; Human Rights; Humanitarian Aid; and Race and Racisms.
Selected Publications
Here are some of my articles that you might find interesting:
Curriculum Vitae
You can view my complete CV here: CV (PDF)
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to connect!
Amy Caroline Rothschild 