Matiangai Sirleaf

Executive Editor

Matiangai V.S. Sirleaf (@matiangai) is an interdisciplinary international scholar, justice seeker, and human rights advocate who has worked to unearth unjust hierarchies embedded in international law and to remedy the inequities that emerge and persist.

She is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She holds a secondary appointment as a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Professor Sirleaf has published widely and extensively. Her areas of expertise include public international law, international human rights law, global public health law, international criminal law, post-conflict and transitional justice, and criminal law. Her current research projects are focused on race and the histories of international human rights and health inequality and the law. Sirleaf’s work has been featured in leading law reviews and her essays, commentary, and reflections also appear in multiple well-regarded fora.

Professor Sirleaf is the editor of the first thematic print volume on Race & National Security (2023) with Oxford University Press. The volume is part of a Just Security book series from OUP that tackles contemporary problems in international law and security that are of interest to a global community of scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and students.

She is an executive editor at Just Security and is a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law. Professor Sirleaf received her J.D. from Yale Law School, her M.A. from the University of Ghana Legon Center for International Affairs, and her B.A. from New York University College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Sirleaf has been awarded a number of prestigious grants, fellowships, and other honors. She is also on LinkedIn.