Dr. Harry M. Rhea is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University and the School of Law – Camden. Dr. Rhea holds several graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in law at the Irish Center for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, School of Law. He has studied at several prestigious international institutions, including the University of Oxford, Grotius Center for International Legal Studies, International Institute for Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Institute for International Criminal Investigations, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, and the University of Salzburg. He is also a trained international war crimes investigator and a member of the War Crimes Research Network at the University of Oxford and the International Criminal Court Scholars Forum at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, Washington University School of Law.
Dr. Rhea held a dual appointment in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and the College of Law at Florida International University, where he was instrumental in developing the first Ph.D. in international crime and justice in the United States. He served as the program’s Associate Director before accepting his current position at Rutgers. Dr. Rhea’s scholarship is multidisciplinary and covers a variety of subjects, including criminal law, diplomacy, foreign policy, history, human rights, international law, and international relations. His scholarly articles have appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Genocide Studies International, Criminal Law Forum, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, Journal of Transnational Law and Policy, and International Criminal Justice Review. In recognition of his scholarly research, the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences awarded him the 2013 Emerging Scholar Award in recognition of outstanding scholarly contributions to the advancement of criminal justice.
Dr. Rhea has presented research at more than 70 national and international conferences. In 2012, the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative invited him to speak on United States policies and international criminal courts. He has lectured at the 2015 Annual Specialization Course in International Criminal Law for Young Penalists at the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Italy. The course’s participants included over 60 doctoral students from more than 30 different countries studying the International Criminal Court. He has also lectured at the 2019 Vienna Winter School on Transnational Organized Crime in Austria. The course's participants included over 40 students from more than 20 countries.
Dr. Rhea served as as a delegation leader at the Sixth Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court. He served as Chair of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences International Section (2017-2019). He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law and is currently Associate Editor of the International Criminal Justice Review and serves on the editorial board of the African Journal of International Criminal Justice.
Dr. Rhea served in the United States Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999, and currently serves as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy Reserve. He is a subject-matter expert and Qualified Navy Instructor at the Navy Officer Training Command in Newport, RI, where he teaches the law of armed conflict and code of conduct in the Officer Development School, Officer Candidate School, and Chief Warrant Officer Academy.