Tracey Blasenheim

Tracey Blasenheim is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the same institution, with a major field in International Relations. Her doctoral dissertation, "Rule of Law(yers): Legal Expertise and the Prosecution of Modern Warfare," investigates the influence of legal expertise on the conduct and prosecution of contemporary armed conflicts.

Throughout her graduate studies, Blasenheim was awarded the prestigious Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Award in 2019 as an Emerging Scholar. She also received the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Minnesota. As a Ph.D. candidate, she served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Human Rights Center. There, she led the student team on the Human Rights Lab project titled "Embattled Battlefield Instruction: Fragmentation and Saturation in Law of Armed Conflict Training." Collaborating with Professor Cosette D. Creamer and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy, the project developed a comprehensive database of IHL training courses offered to militaries, policymakers, journalists, and humanitarian activists worldwide. The initiative seeks to connect variations in IHL instruction to outcomes in international legal compliance and facilitate partnerships between human rights organizations and training programs.

Blasenheim's research broadly explores the challenges and consequences of international legal compliance, including the mapping of war's legalization globally. Her scholarly contributions include participation in the forum "Ritual and Authority in World Politics" published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. She also published a review of Philippe Sands' "The War Lawyers" in Society and Space. At the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, she holds an initial placement as an instructor following her graduation from the doctoral program. Blasenheim has engaged in public discourse through events such as the panel on "Parks and the Uprising: State Failure and Radical Organizing Around Homelessness," organized by the Multicultural Undergraduate Political Science Coalition.

Professional Email: blase016@umn.edu