The Lycoming College Department of Criminal Justice-Criminology will host Laura Pitter, counterterrorism adviser for the Human Rights Watch, for the 14th annual Larry Strauser Lectureship at 4 p.m. Nov. 5 in the college's Mary Lindsay Welch Honors Hall.
The lecture will address the counterterrorism policies of the U.S., more specifically the treatment of inmates in Guantanamo Bay and the system of justice provided for suspected terrorists.
Pitter holds a master's in international affairs from Columbia University and received a degree in law from the University of San Francisco.
Her previous experiences include journalism and human rights advocacy. As a journalist, Pitter wrote for Time magazine and Reuters News Agency while reporting the war in Bosnia. She later served the United Nations in both Bosnia and post 9/11 Afghanistan as a protection and political affairs officer.
Following her return to the U.S., Pitter practiced law for eight years in both the public and private sector. Her position with the Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program focuses on monitoring, analyzing and writing about U.S. counterterrorism policies.
The Strauser lecture series, sponsored by Lycoming's criminal justice-criminology department, is held each year to honor the memory of Larry Strauser, a 1959 Lycoming graduate and member of the college's faculty from 1973 until his death in 1999. Strauser started the interdisciplinary criminal justice program at Lycoming in 1977.
