We use cookies on this website to improve the experience we provide. By continuing to use our site you agree to this, or visit our cookie policy to manage your settings.
Saved courses
Search website

Visiting Scholars

The Rev Dr Paul Edmondson, Visiting Professor of Shakespeare and Human Rights

The Rev Dr Paul Edmondson is a world-leading scholar of Shakespeare: He is the Head of Research for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT), a priest of the Church of England, and is the Chairman of the Midlands4Cities Partners Advisory Group.    

He joins the Centre for Human Rights as the Visiting Professor of Shakespeare and Human Rights to provide his expertise on Shakespeare and how literature can be used to enhance our understanding of the law and legal processes. 

Dr Edmondosn is the author, co-author, and co-editor of many books and articles about Shakespeare, including Shakespeare: Ideas in Profile (which has been translated into Spanish and Chinese), Twelfth Night: a guide to the text and its Theatrical Life, and (with Stanley Wells) The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative Biography and Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy. He co-edited Shakespeare’s Creative Legacies (with Peter Holbrook for The Arden Shakespeare), Finding Shakespeare’s New Place: an archaeological biography (with archaeologists Kevin Colls and William Mitchell for Manchester University Press), and New Places: Shakespeare and Civic Creativity (with Ewan Fernie for The Arden Shakespeare). Most recently has has co-edited (with Stanley Wells) the groundbreaking All the Sonnets of Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press), which has received international praise. He acted as Shakespeare consultant to Kenneth Branagh on his film All is True (2018).

He has twenty years teaching experience of undergraduates through the short course offered internationally by the SBT, as well as for members of the general public. He regularly hosts on-line Research Conversations for the SBT and co-presents their podcast ‘Shakespeare Alive’. He is a prolific expositor of Shakespeare, bringing him to the attention of many people around the world through his SoundCloud recordings. From 25 March 2020 to 25 March 2021, for example, he posted an audio extract of Shakespeare every day, wisely, creatively, and sensitively chosen, and often relevant to current affairs, or an anniversary. He has spoken at both Inner Temple and Middle Temple on Shakespeare and the Law. He is a speaker at international conferences. He has addressed the Windsor Dialogue about Shakespeare and Human Rights (at the invitation of Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Chair of AMAR International Foundation, working to improve the well-being of internationally displaced people).

He oversees the doctoral supervision conducted at the SBT, and co-supervises four students. With Dr Islam Issa (BCU School of English) he supervised Helen Hopkins for her PhD on, ‘International Responses to Shakespeare in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Collections,’ funded through the Midlands4Cities Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA). He currently co-supervises (with Professor Yorke) Jyoti Wood’s PhD, ‘Shakespeare and the Articulation of Refugee Rights in the United Nations.’ 

Ms Vicki Prais, Visiting Professor of Human Rights

Vicki Prais is a human rights consultant and lawyer who works to safeguard the rights and liberties of people globally, and she is an expert in human rights education and careers development. She conducts her work through her website.  

Vicki is an alumnus of BCU Law School (Legal Practice Course), and she has 25 years’ experience in protecting human rights with a focus on prisoners’ rights, prison reform and dignity behind bars around the world. She has worked at the multi-lateral levels within the United Nations (working in Kosovo), the Council of Europe (Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights), and as a consultant working for the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, International Partnership for Human Rights and Penal Reform International. She has worked at the governmental level in the British government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in the Consular Directorate where she monitored and advised on criminal matters, imprisonment matters and potential human rights violations faced by UK citizens in foreign jurisdictions. Vicki has experience in the national human rights institution of the Scottish Human Rights Commission advising on Scottish regional human rights issues. In the nongovernmental organization sector she has worked for Amnesty International and Penal Reform International.

Through her experience in international diplomacy (UN, CE, OSCE) and bilateral communications (Consular Directorate, FCDO), Vicki will be contributing to both the CHR’s ‘Consultancy’ and ‘Clinic’ streams – as these focus upon our work in the UN, advising individual governments, and in litigation in cases as expert advisors though amicus curiae briefs. Vicki has an exemplary track record in all of these areas.

Vicki has the highest levels of expertise in researching and report writing in both international organisations and for nongovernmental organisations. She has written reports for Penal Reform International, and she is consulted by NGOs to provide expert reports; most recently, Belarus on Hold: Crackdown on Post-Election Protests: Findings of Fact-Finding Mission to Belarus, The International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR Belgium, September 2020).  Vicki has also authored articles in human rights publications; most recently, The Implementation in Canada of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners: A Practitioner’s Perspective, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Vol. 12, No.. 3, (2020).

The CHR prides itself on providing to both our undergraduate and postgraduate students the highest quality of careers advice, and Vicki is a leading expert in human rights careers development and mentoring. Vicki would be very willing to provide careers sessions for our students and also provide mentoring advice where needed. She will bring a wealth of experience from her work in government and the international regions.   

Ms Mama Fatima Singhateh, Visiting Professor of Children’s Rights

Ms. Singhateh currently holds the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children. The mandate includes child prostitution, child pornography and any other child sexual abuse material. She conducts her work through the UN Special Procedure’s portal.  

Ms. Singhateh has held high-level positions of public service in Gambia, including being the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, a Justice of Appeal, a High Court Judge, and as a lawyer she was a prosecutor and legislative draftsperson.

Ms. Singhateh brings to the CHR more than 20 years’ experience in protecting the rights of children in Gambia and around the world. She is a trained lawyer and member of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn. She has undertaken the safeguarding of children’s rights at all levels of government. Within law enforcement she worked as a state prosecutor conducting trials of all forms of violations of criminal law in Gambia. In the formulation of domestic law in Gambia she has undertaken the drafting of legislation, and between 2009 and 2012 she held the judicial position of Judge of the High Court and in 2012 was appointed a Justice of Appeal in the Gambia Court of Appeal. Ms. Singhateh then entered government and served as Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Gambia from 2013-2014 and 2015-2017. As part of her national duties, she led the amendments to the Sexual Offences Act and the drafting and enactment of the laws that outlawed respectively the practice of female genital mutilation and child marriages in Gambia.

Ms. Singhateh has promoted the holistic delivery of the law and legal training in Gambia. As a lawyer and judge, she conducted legal training for law students and legal professionals, she implemented country-UN projects including, the UNICEF-Government of The Gambia Country Programme of Cooperation. This project led to legal and infrastructural change in Gambia, including the implementation of the Children’s Act, the establishment of the Children’s Court, and the drafting of the Trafficking in Persons Act.