It is our great pleasure to introduce our new IntLawGrrls contributor Pantea Javidan. Pantea Javidan, JD, PhD, is Program Faculty and Research Fellow at Stanford University, Center for Human Rights and International Justice. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of sociology and law with expertise in the subject areas of social inequalities and human trafficking, and a professional background as a civil rights attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to her legal practice, she served as a residential mental health counselor to youth at risk of incarceration in San Francisco. As an attorney Pantea provided direct legal assistance and systemic advocacy for the wellbeing of vulnerable populations, including children & youth, refugees and domestic violence survivors. She simultaneously served as the civil advocacy representative of a multidisciplinary team for diversionary court in the juvenile justice system in Oakland. From 2014-2020 she Chaired the Board of Directors at Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, a community mental health clinic in East Oakland that serves survivors of state crimes and severe forms of trauma such as torture and genocide.

Pantea earned her PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics. Her scholarly publications focus on multidimensional inequalities, sexual and gender-based violence, human trafficking, criminal law, civil and human rights, and theories of justice. Pantea has pioneered research on historical and contemporary domestic child trafficking laws using an intersectional approach and human rights framework of international children’s rights. Considered key literature on the subject, her research informs advocacy efforts for legislative and judicial shifts away from the criminalization of survivors of sex trafficking and towards legal protection and socio-economic support. Pantea has also published leading research on race and law regarding changes in the modern conceptualization of discrimination. 

As Faculty of the Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Program, Pantea conducts interdisciplinary research concerning the impacts of trauma across time and generation on survivors of human rights abuses and their families and communities, with a view towards informing transitional justice and judicial processes, particularly relating to US immigration policy. Her current research project investigates emergent forms of criminalization and incarceration in response to human trafficking and children & youth seeking refuge in the United States.

Heartfelt welcome!