Dr. Grace Cheng is a Fulbright Specialist, who participated in a project at the Center for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration (CHRM2) at the University of Jember, East Java, from September 19 to October 1, 2022.

During her time at CHRM2, she engaged with faculty and students from various disciplines in a range of activities that aim to promote human rights education through curriculum and community outreach efforts. In the two weeks that Dr. Cheng was at CHRM2, she delivered lectures on various human rights topics, met with students for small group discussions, participated in academic writing workshops as well as in the launching of a podcast program that addresses human rights issues.

In addition, another component of her work was consulting on research projects. Dr. Cheng observed the Center’s research project on protecting the cultural rights of indigenous minorities in East Java, accompanying the team on a field research visit to one community and the local government agency with jurisdiction of the region. She is working with the faculty of CHRM2 on a collaborative research project involving scholars from various institutions. This project will be concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples to their traditional lands and culture in the context of increasing pressures to open forest regions to economic activity.

Dr. Cheng is the Director of the Center for Human Rights at the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University, where she also teaches in the Departments of Political Science and History. She has consulted in the development of various programs, including for the International Institute for Peace and Development Studies (Asian Resource Foundation, Bangkok) and the Department of Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies at Tribhuvan University (Nepal), and also serves on the boards of the West African Centre for Transitional Justice (Nigeria) and the Forced Migration Studies Center for Afghanistan (USA-based).