Nerissa Naidoo
Election Year: 2020
Election Constituency: Southern Africa
Scholar Status: Scholar in Residence
Rhodes Identifier: South Africa-at-Large & Balliol 2020
Biography
Nerissa recently graduated with a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University, which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to that, she obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree summa cum laude from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Having grown up with a smartphone in her hand, Nerissa brings her technical knowledge and pop culture expertise to the field of human rights law: she served as the Communications Director of Harvard Law School's Advocates for Human Rights, and completed her Master's dissertation on cultural copyright protection for Black Twitter's memes. Invested in defending fundamental freedoms both online and off, she is currently a Harvard Human Rights fellow at a digital rights organization in Beirut, which focuses on freedom of expression, digital security, and data privacy in the Middle East. She hopes to further explore the intersection of law, culture and technology at Oxford.