Alexa Koenig, PhD, JD, is Co-Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center (winner of the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions), Director of HRC’s Investigations Program, and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches classes that focus on the intersection of emerging technologies and human rights. She also co-teaches a class on open source investigative reporting at Berkeley Journalism. Alexa co-founded the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab(link is external), which trains students and professionals to use social media and other digital open source content to strengthen human rights research, reporting, and accountability. Alexa is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, a member of the Technology Advisory Board for the Innovation Lab at Human Rights First, an advisory board member of Physicians for Human Rights, and a co-founder of the University of California Network on Human Rights Fact-Finding. She previously helped establish and co-chaired the Technology Advisory Board of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court; co-chaired the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Law Committee; and was a member of the University of California’s Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, for which she co-chaired the Human Resources subcommittee. 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, and the Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service. She has also been honored with a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center (2019), with multiple writing residencies at Mesa Refuge, as a Woman Inspiring Change by Harvard’s Women’s Law Association (2020), and as one of “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics” by Women in AI Ethics (2022). She conceived of and directed development of the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations and has conducted trainings on online open source investigations at organizations around the world. Alexa has a BA from UCLA in World Arts and Cultures summa cum laude, a JD from the University of San Francisco with a specialization in cyberlaw and intellectual property magna cum laude, and both an MA and a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program with honors.
ALEXA KOENIG’S RECENT BOOKS INCLUDE
- Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives,(link is external) co-author with Andrea Lampros (Cambridge University Press 2023)
- 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
- Bellingcat: The online investigators tracking alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine(link is external), 60 Minutes, May 2022. Discussed the use of OSINT tools by civilian investigators, the important standards set by the Berkeley Protocol, and the utility of OSINT in war crimes investigations in Ukraine and beyon
- 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 2025.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Fall 2024 | 224 sec. 001 | Conducting Open Source Investigations | View Teaching Evaluation | 262.68 sec. 001 | Human Rights and War Crimes Investigations | View Teaching Evaluation | Spring 2024 | 224 sec. 001 | Conducting Open Source Investigations | View Teaching Evaluation | 262.65 sec. 001 | Human Rights and Social Justice Writing Workshop | View Teaching Evaluation |
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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.
Where Innovation Fuels Investigation
GROUNDBREAKING LAB TRAINS STUDENTS TO GATHER EVIDENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES Walking through Cairo’s Tahrir Square following an Arab Spring protest in 2011, Andrea Trewinnard ’19 picked up one of
Responding to Gender-Based Violence in Greece’s Refugee Camps
Human Rights Center works to coordinate and improve the response to gender-based violence in Greece’s refugee camps.
New Faculty Books Feted with Comic Wordplay
Berkeley Law fetes its faculty authors and their most recent books on legal theory, ocean law, juvenile justice and more.
Hiding in Plain Sight Explores the Pursuit of War Criminals, from Mengele to Kony
Six years ago, Eric Stover, Alexa Koenig and Victor Peskin teamed up to try to understand why so many states ignore their legal obligations to arrest and try war crimes suspects.