Alexa Koenig, PhD, JD, is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center (winner of the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions), director of the center’s Technology and Human Rights program, and a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches classes on human rights and international criminal law with a particular focus on the impact of emerging technologies on human rights practice. She co-founded the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab, which trains students and professionals to use social media and other digital content to strengthen human rights advocacy and accountability. Alexa is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, co-chair of the Technology Advisory Board of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Law Committee’s Technology and Human Rights working group, a member of the University of California’s Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence (for which she co-chairs the Human Resources subcommittee), an inaugural member of the Technology Advisory Board for the Innovation Lab at Human Rights First, and a member of the board of advisors for Mnemonic/the Syrian Archive. Alexa has been honored with several awards for her work, including the United Nations Association-SF’s Global Human Rights Award, UC Berkeley’s Mark Bingham Award for Excellence, 2020 Woman Inspiring Change by Harvard Law School, the Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Teaching Excellence Award, and diverse grants, including support from the National Science Foundation and numerous private foundations. She directed development of and served on the coordinating committee of the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations. She has conducted trainings on online open source investigations for the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, UC Berkeley’s Advanced Media Institute, and others. Her research and commentary have appeared in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, US News and World Report, and elsewhere.
ALEXA KOENIG’S RECENT BOOKS INCLUDE
- Digital Witness: Using Open Source Methods for Human Rights Investigations, Advocacy and Accountability, with Sam Dubberley and Daragh Murray (Oxford University Press, 2019)
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Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror, with Eric Stover and Victor Peskin (UC Press, 2016)
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Extreme Punishment: Comparative Studies in Detention, Incarceration and Solitary Confinement, editor with Keramet Reiter (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015)
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The Guantánamo Effect: Exposing the Consequences of U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices, contributor with Eric Stover, Laurel Fletcher, and Stephen Smith Cody (UC Press, 2009). Additional research and commentary have appeared in such diverse outlets as the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, US News and World Reports, and elsewhere.
RECENT MEDIA APPEARANCES
- Berkeley students investigate war crimes using social media, UC Berkeley News
- Digital Detectives, explores how open source investigations have sparked a revolution in journalism; NHK World, April 2020
- Fake news v fact: The battle for truth, The Economist, February 2019
- PBS NewsHour(link is external), discussing the launch of the Human Rights Investigations Lab, February 2017
- “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror,” ALOUD Podcast Series, Jan. 17, 2017
- UC Berkeley students work to authenticate photos, videos from conflict zones, ABC 7 News, July 13, 2017.
Education
J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law
Ph.D., UC Berkeley
M.A., UC Berkeley
Alexa Koenig is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2022.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Fall 2021 | 262.68 sec. 001 | Human Rights and War Crimes Investigations | View Teaching Evaluation |
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Taliban Gunshots Echo Through Scholar Khwaga Ghani’s Unexpected New Life at Berkeley
Journalist Khwaga Ghani is the first fellow in an ambitious program to support Afghan refugees, co-sponsored by Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center.
Q&A on Court Ordering Facebook to Disclose Content on Myanmar Genocide
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, discusses a United States Magistrate judge’s decision ordering Facebook to disclose content in order to assess “responsibility for genocide” against the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice
Berkeley Law Center Helps Launch First Investigative Reporting Class Using Open Source Intelligence
The Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law and the Investigative Reporting Program at Berkeley Journalism have launched the country’s first investigative reporting course using open source intelligence (OSINT) at a university.
Myanmar military killing protestors, civilians as ‘psychological warfare’ after coup
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, appears on PBS NewsHour to discuss Myanmar’s military use of killings to terrorize the country, which was the focus of an open source investigation from the Human Rights Center and the Associated Press
Myanmar’s junta using bodies to terrorize
An investigation by the Associated Press and the Human Rights Center finds that Myanmar’s junta is hiding, mutilating and cremating bodies to terrorize its citizens since the military takeover
Law professors sue in S.F. to lift Trump sanctions on international court prosecutors
Legal advisers to the International Criminal Court, including Alexa Koenig, director of the Human Rights Clinic, have sued to challenge the Trump administration’s sanctions on the court’s prosecutors for investigating Israel and U.S. actions in Afghanistan — sanctions that the Biden administration has left intact so far
From Economics to History, Recent Books Showcase Depth and Breadth of Faculty Scholarship
Fifteen books published in 2019 and 2020 were highlighted at a recent event, including work by Ian Haney López, Franklin Zimring, and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Social Media Video Evidence in Impeachment Trial: Lessons from International Tribunals
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, discusses the use of social media evidence to create a narrative as one piece of the evidentiary puzzle ahead of the impeachment trial of former president Trump
Berkeley scholars’ outrage, reflections on U.S. Capitol mob siege
Berkeley Law experts reflect on the the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol
Protocol Developed for Social Media Evidence in Human Rights Trials
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations which offers guidance on how social media evidence can be used in international criminal proceedings
Berkeley Law Center Creates First Global Protocol on Using Social Media as Evidence for War Crimes
A three-year effort by the Human Rights Center and the U.N. Human Rights Office advances the use of digital information to pursue justice against atrocities.
Op-Ed: Big Tech Can Help Bring War Criminals to Justice
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains why it’s critically important social media companies preserve evidence of abuse
‘Doomscrolling But With a Higher Purpose’: Student Joins Election Day Social Media Monitoring
Berkeley Law student Clara Dorfman ’22 volunteered with a Berkeley Human Rights Center team that’s scouring social media for evidence of voter suppression and other threats on Election Day and beyond.
Accidental cover up
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains why social media companies’ use of algorithms to remove content can hinder investigations into incidents
International Acclaim
A fast-selling book and a major award highlight the early impact of the Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab.
Digital Witness: A Guide for Human Rights Investigations, Honed at Berkeley
New book offers a how-to guide for mining online information to increase accountability in the courts and the public eye.
Emma Day Links Children’s Rights and Technology at ‘Amazing’ LL.M. Program
A Fulbright Scholar and longtime children’s advocate, Day sees a huge opportunity to advance her work through Berkeley Law’s LL.M. thesis track program.
Clinic, Center Safeguard Human Rights Close to Home and Around the World
The International Human Rights Law Clinic and Human Rights Center fight injustice through litigation, policy suggestions, advocacy, research, and science-based investigations.
Resilient Students Help Guide Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab
The center works to prevent secondary trauma from documenting human rights violations and potential war crimes.
Human Rights Center Fellows Share Stories from Formative Field Work
Three Berkeley Law students were among those who gave TED-style talks at the center’s annual Fellowship Conference.