Brigid O’Farrell

Brigid O’Farrell is a candidate for the MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Magdalen College and a 2018 Australian Rhodes Scholar. Her research focuses on the 1991 Amnesty Law passed in the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and is supervised by Professor Eugene Rogan. Based on archival sources and interviews, her research seeks to generate a more comprehensive account of how and why the amnesty law was passed, in order to better assess its direct implications and legacy. Her broader research interests include transitional justice and gender, peace and security issues in the Middle East.

Brigid works as a research intern for International Crisis Group’s Gender, Peace and Security team and is a member of the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Network Executive Committee. She is also the current Thawley Scholar at the Lowy Institute in Sydney where she is undertaking a research project on the recent history of Australia’s involvement in conflicts in the Middle East. 

Prior to coming to Oxford, Brigid worked at the Australian Mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, for the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet on reform arising out of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, and in the Legislative Assembly Procedure Office at the Parliament of Victoria. Brigid holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of Melbourne, where she majored in History, Politics and International Relations.