“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”

- Arundhati Roy

About Flynn

Dr. Flynn Coleman is a writer, international human rights attorney, and political scientist whose work lives at the intersection of memory, justice, and what it means to be human in an age of great transformation.

Over the course of her career, Flynn has worked across some of the defining issues of our time—from war crimes tribunals and post-conflict justice to artificial intelligence, gender equity, environmental rights, and the future of democracy.

She has collaborated with international institutions, governments, and organizations around the world, and her work has been shaped by years of global experience across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Her work has taken her from the United Nations to universities, organizations, and communities across all continents. She writes books, teaches, advises, and speaks globally—always returning to a central question: what does it mean to remain human, and humane?

More Background

    • NEW BOOK FORTHCOMING

    • Author of A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Who We Are

    • Contributing writer for:

      • Los Angeles Times

      • Politico

      • Slate

      • The Guardian

      • Foreign Policy

      • Boston Globe Ideas

      • Los Angeles Review of Books

      • Irish Times

      • Literary Hub

      • Tech Policy Press

      • San Francisco Chronicle

      • HuffPost

      • Global Citizen

      • The Next Web

      • Darling Magazine

      • Nautilus Magazine

    • Foreword author of Liderazgo, Emprendimiento y Género: Motores de la transformación

    • Work translated into multiple languages and featured in educational textbooks and global campaigns

    • Visiting Scholar, Columbia University
      (Women, Peace, and Leadership Program; Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity, Columbia Climate School)

    • Lecturer, Columbia School of Professional Studies
      (Negotiation and Conflict Resolution)

    • Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow, European University Institute (Florence)

    • Visiting Researcher, University of Copenhagen (Law Faculty)

    • Fellow, Information Society Law Center, University of Milan (Cesare Beccaria Department)

    • Technology & Human Rights Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School (Carr Center for Human Rights Policy)

    • Visiting ISP Fellow, Yale Law School (Information Society Project)

    • Other teaching roles:

      • The New School

      • Parsons School of Design

      • King’s College London (founding teacher, redefining success in law)

      • General Assembly

      • The School of Life

    • Inaugural Fellow, Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, NYU School of Law

  • Flynn has worked with:

    • United Nations

    • International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

    • UNHCR

    • United States Federal Government

    As well as with international organizations, companies, and institutions worldwide on issues including:

    • war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity

    • truth and reconciliation commissions

    • post-conflict and transitional justice

    • artificial intelligence and emerging technologies

    • behavioral economics and behavioral science

    • autonomous weaponry and the future of war

    • gender equity

    • access to justice and education

    • the future of democracy and truth

    • Advisor Roles:

      • Mentor, The Asia Foundation

      • Board Advisor, Flowers for the Future

      • Inaugural Advisor, Spring ACT

    • Fulbright Specialist, U.S. Department of State

    • Henry Luce Scholar

    • Council on Foreign Relations (Stephen M. Kellen Member)

    • Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship (EUI)

    • Technology & Human Rights Fellowship (Harvard Kennedy School)

    • Yale ISP Fellowship

    • YFU Distinguished Alum Award

    • NCP Visionary Award

    • Women in Sports Award (inaugural recipient)

    • Doctor of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins University SAIS

    • LL.M., London School of Economics

    • J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law

    • B.S.F.S., Georgetown University

    Studies at:

    • La Sorbonne

    • University of Cambridge

    • Trinity College Dublin

    • Université de Genève

    • Universidad de Chile

    • Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar

Wanderings in the World

Flynn has lived in Italy, Cambodia, Spain, Senegal, France, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Hong Kong, Fiji, the Netherlands, Chile, and the United States. She currently calls New York home.

She speaks eight languages, and her life has taken her from rebuilding homes and schools in New Orleans and Fiji to working with children and communities across Haiti, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, to time spent with primates in Spain, to teaching How to Make a Difference in the English countryside, to playing soccer from Italy to Cambodia to Chile, to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with her dad, to zodaic boating in Alaska with her mom, to riding a little red Vespa through the rolling hills of Umbria.

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