Former Visiting Fellow publishes groundbreaking study on U.S. boarding school justice initiative

Professor Diane Marie Amann, who spent Michaelmas Term 2024 as a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, has published a major article in the American Journal of International Law examining efforts by the United States to address the traumatic legacy of its Indian boarding school system. 

The article, Child-Taking Justice and the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, analyses a three-year federal investigation into more than a century of policies that removed Indigenous children from their families and communities. The initiative, launched in 2021 and concluded in 2024, led to a landmark report, a formal apology by President Joe Biden, and the designation of a national memorial. Professor Amann positions this work within the wider field of transitional justice, arguing for deeper engagement with international legal norms and global comparative practice. 

Now Regents’ Professor of International Law at the University of Georgia and currently visiting at University College London, Professor Amann credits her time at Exeter as a formative part of the research process. In the article’s acknowledgements, she writes that the publication “owes no small part to the comradeship, hospitality, and support extended to me during my Michaelmas 2024 stint as Visiting Fellow at Exeter College.” 

The article is available online through Cambridge University Press, with a full abstract and PDF on SSRN. 

Exeter College warmly congratulates Professor Amann on this important contribution to international legal scholarship and justice for Indigenous communities.