Susan Perry

Professor, Program Director MAs in International Affairs

Biography

Susan H. Perry is a specialist in international human rights law and digital technology. She holds the UNESCO Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights at the American University of Paris with Professor Claudia Roda; they are laureates of the 2025 international UNESCO-Biruney Prize for Scientific Research on the Ethics of AI.

As an award-winning tenured professor, Dr. Perry teaches in and directs several of the university’s graduate programs. She serves on the French National Council for Human Rights (CNCDH) and is Vice President of the Sub-Commission on International Humanitarian Law and Humanitarian Aid. As a member of the European Union’s Advisory Panel for SHERPA, Dr. Perry contributed to the legal framework for the Artificial Intelligence Act. She was recently named to the Advisory Board for AIOLIA, the 2025-27 Horizon Europe project designed to guide global AI regulation and interpretation of the EU AI Act.

Both scholar and activist, Professor Perry’s research focuses on vulnerable populations –  civilians in wartime, the elderly and children – whose rights are violated by the State or industry in breach of binding legal conventions. She has published numerous articles and monographs in three languages, and appears frequently on European media outlets. Her publications analyze the nexus between digital technology and human rights, such as Illusion Pixel in French (Lemieux Editions 2015) and Human Rights and Digital Technology (Palgrave 2017). Her current research focus is on the impacts of unregulated AI in the education, labor and military spheres.

Dr. Perry received her PhD from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (University of Paris) and her Masters in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. She completed a BA in Semiotics at Brown University and an MA in Chinese Studies at Yale University.

Education/Degrees

  • MSt in International Human Rights Law, with distinction (2007), Oxford University
  • Doctorat in Chinese Studies, mention très honorable (1998), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
  • DEA in Chinese Studies (1990), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
  • MA in East Asian Studies (1985), Yale University
  • Yale-China Fellow, Hunan, China (1985-87)
  • BA in Semiotics (1982), Minor in Chinese History, Brown University

Publications

Perry S. & Roda C. (2017) Human Rights and Digital Technology: digital tightrope. Londone: Palgrave Macmillan. Perry S. (2015 ) Iluusion pixel. Paris: Lemieux Editions. Perry, S., Roda, C. (2014) Teaching Privacy by Design to Non-Technical Audiences. Cyber Security and Privacy (CSP) Forum 2014. Springer CCIS Series, Vol. 470. Perry, S., Roda, C. (2014) Privacy-by-Design Curriculum. Selected by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) for the Roadmap for NIS Education Programmes in Europe. Roda, C., Perry, S. (2014) Mobile Phone Infrastructure Regulation in Europe: Scientific Challenges and Human Rights Protection. Environmental Science and Policy 37(2014) 204-214. Impact Factor: 3.514/5; 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.948/5. Perry S., Roda C., Paper on Conceptualizing and Contextualizing the Changing Nature of Internet Usage in China. China and the New Internet World: The Eleventh Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC11) - Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, June 2013. Perry et al. (2012) Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for the General Comment on the Rights of the Child and the Business Sector. Perry (2011) “Child Soldiers: the pursuit of peace or justice for child combatants?” in Gardner and Kobtzeff (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to War: Origins and Prevention, London: Ashgate Press. Perry (2008) “Peine de mort: reformer plutot qu’abolir”, Hommes et Libertés, Paris: Ligue des droits de l’homme, no. 142. Perry (2006) “Legal Parameters of the Headscarf Issue in France and in Europe”, Oxford: Oxford University Monographs. Lionnel et al. (2004) Signs special issue on "Development Cultures: New Environments, New Realities, New Strategies", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Winter, vol. 29, no.2. Perry (2004) "L’abolition de la peine de mort en Chine", Etudes, May. Perry (2003) "La vie associative en Chine", Etudes, October.

Conferences & Lectures

  • 'Valuing Privacy through Privacy by Design', paper presented at the Amsterdam Privacy Conference 2015, 23-26 October.
  • Panelist, IPEN Workshop 2015, Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT, Catholic University of Leuven, 5 June 2015.
  • Digital Tightrope: human rights and digital technology, Visiting Scholar, University of California at Riverside, 4 March 2015.
  • Introduction to Privacy by Design, Institute of Distributed Systems, University of Ulm, Germany, 9 March 2015.
  • Panelist (with PRIPARE partners) on Privacy-by-design Issues: requirements for training material, for Cyber Security & Privacy Forum, Athens, 21-22 May 2014.
  • Working Group on Implementation of the Obligations: Different Instruments, member, Conference on General Comment on the Rights of the Child and the Business Sector, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, IDE, Sion, Switzerland, October 2012.
  • Sustainable Development of the Global Commons, organizer and moderator of the Annual President’s Conference for the Advancement of Scholarship, The American University of Paris, Cercle de l’Union Interallié, May 2010.
  • “Demobilizing Child Soldiers in Central Africa”, keynote speaker, UNICEF/US State Department Conference on Child Soldiers, Njamena, Chad, June 2010.
  • “The Cultural Dimension of Conflict”, respondant, Bertelsmann Foundation Panel Discussion, The American University of Paris, September 2010.
  • “Killing the chicken to scare the monkey: policy drivers for the death penalty in China”, Scholar in Residence Address, University of California at Riverside, March 2009.
  • Aspen Institute Cultural Diplomacy Forum, moderator, Paris, November 2008.
  • Roundtable: Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, Human Rights Law Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, March 2008.
  • “Headscarves and human rights”, plenary address, 14th International Conference on Learning. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 26-29, 2007.
  • “Parliamentary practice: training elected women representatives from Afghanistan”, plenary address, Vital Voices initiative, hosted by the US Mission to the OECD, June 2006.
  • "Law and dissidence in China ", The Role of the (Public) Intellectual, China Center, University of California at Berkeley, April 3-4, 2004
  • "Strengthening the role of the defense lawyer in death penalty cases", Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, January 8-9, 2004.
  • "Women Practicing Development Across Cultures", International Women's Day 2002, UNESCO March 8.
  • "Quelques ambiguïtés politiques: les femmes et le chômage en Chine,” Aspects de la Protection Sociale en Chine, OECD, June 2001.
  • Roundtable facilitator for "Gendered Political Economy of Peace and Reconstruction," Women Waging Peace Research Track Symposium, Harvard University, November 2000.
  • Co-organizer (1998-2000) of the French Senate conference series on "Women, Culture and Development Practices", with funding from UNESCO, French Foreign Ministry, OECD and the Asia Foundation.
  • "Nu Shu: Women Poets of Hunan," Keynote Speaker, UCLA February 1996. 

Affiliations

Editorial Board, Centre Chine, EHESS
International Political Science Association (IPSA)
Association Française des Sciences Politiques (AFSP)
Yale-China Association