Kaleigh Heard is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Political Science and Deputy Director of the MA Human Rights programme at the University College London. She also directs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Conflict within UK Parliament and provides support to the US Centre of Excellence on Civilian Protection on civilian harm mitigation, response, and compensation. Her research concerns ethico-strategic dilemmas in conflict with a particular focus on the strategic implications of IHL obligations, the personal and professional ethics of service personnel during combat, and civilian harm in contemporary warfare. Her forthcoming book explores militaries’ responses to civilian harm incidents, particularly the use and misuse of compensation and amends processes in contemporary counterinsurgency campaigns. It also explores the applications of human-centric design principles in civilian harm response and compensation reform for existing compensation processes amongst coalition forces.

Her teaching and research interests include human rights, international law, humanitarian affairs, crisis and civil war dynamics, counter-insurgency, civil military interaction, and conflict-related sexual violence. She is a passionate scholar-practitioner and balances her academic and policy work with an extensive background in humanitarian action.