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 Post-Graduate Certificate in Human Rights Law at the University of London and 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 School of International Criminal Law. 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 served in the United States Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999, and is a commissioned officer in the United States Navy Reserve.
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 helped develop the first Ph.D. in international crime and justice in the United States. He served as the program’s Associate Director. 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 60 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 human rights courts. He has lectured at the 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 Vienna Winter School on Transnational Orgainzed Crime in Austria. Dr. Rhea frequently lectures on the law of armed conflict to newly commissioned Navy officers at the Navy Officer Training Command in Newport, RI.
Dr. Rhea served as Executive Director of the Council for American Students in International Negotiations in 2007. Also in 2007, he served as a delegation leader at the Sixth Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law. He is currently Associate Editor of the International Criminal Justice Review and serves on the editorial board of the African Journal of International Criminal Justice.