Zoltán I. Búzás 

Biography & Research

Zoltán I. Búzás is an associate professor of global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliated faculty member of the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights. 

Búzás's book, "Evading International Norms: Race and Rights in the Shadow of Legality," centers on human rights behaviors that are awful but lawful. It examines how states violate human rights norms in the shadow of technical legality—a process Búzás calls norm evasion. Based on a wealth of evidence, including more than 160 interviews, the book shows that the expulsion of Roma immigrants from France and the school segregation of Roma children in the Czech Republic violated the norm of racial equality in a technically legal fashion. Búzás’s research on the politics of international law and norms, race, and human rights is published in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, and Security Studies.

Búzás holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Ohio State University. Prior to joining Notre Dame, he was an assistant professor of politics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, an Open Society Fellow, and a visiting scholar at McGill University’s entre for International Peace and Security Studies.

Courses

• Race and International Relations (undergraduate course in global affairs)
• Introduction to International Human Rights (undergraduate course in global affairs)
• International Human Rights Policy (elective course for master of global affairs)

News & Media

• Using anti-racist messaging boosts credibility of human rights groups, Notre Dame study shows
• "6+1 questions about 'race, shaming, and international human rights" (Duck of Minerva)