The School of Law is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Harry Van Buren III as an Honorary Professor. Honorary professorships are awarded to distinguished academics and members of the profession in recognition of their contribution to the University’s teaching, research and other activities.

Prof Van Buren is the Barbara and David A. Koch Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business in St. Paul, Minnesota. His PhD in business ethics is from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business. He has published extensively, including in collaboration with a research network that extends across North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe. He is a section editor for the Journal of Business Ethics and has been a special issue editor for Business & Society, for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and for the Journal of Management Studies. He continues to make a major contribution to the intersections of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and human rights. Prof Van Buren’s work has been instrumental in bridging legal and business scholarship on business and human rights. In his recent work he has addressed questions around modern slavery and human trafficking in business supply chains.

Prof Van Buren will play a key role in further developing the School’s strength in business and human rights research and education. He will contribute at all levels to teachingon corporate governance and business and human rights. He will also act as a mentor and leader for research in business and human rights, focused especially on how business responsibilities are framed within corporate perspectives and processes. In doing so he will build on the exceptional contribution he made to the School as a visiting fellow during the 2020-21 academic year, when he mentored staff and research students, worked on research projects with members of the Business and Human Rights Group in the School, and presented his research both internally and externally.

Dr Marek Martyniszyn, Interim Head of School, said “it is a privilege to welcome Prof Van Buren to the School. Prof Van Buren’s deep commitment to mentoring students and colleagues is at the core of his work. We are especially delighted that he is joining the School in this light and very much look forward to working with him in the years to come.”

The School’s Business and Human Rights Group is focused on teaching and researching the business side of the business and human rights equation: that is, how firms define and navigate their obligations under human rights instruments, how corporate responsibilities are formed – and how they ought to be formed – and how remedies for human rights breaches might be imagined and devised. Welcoming Prof Van Buren’s appointment, Dr Ciara Hackett said that “Harry’s appointment confirms the massive contribution he has already made as a mentor to business and human rights scholars in the Law School. We very much look forward to deepening our collaboration with him and to working together in developing research on business responsibilities for human rights.” Dr Ciarán O’Kelly said that “we are delighted that Harry’s role in our scholarly community has been recognised through his Honorary Professorship. We are very excited to move forward with him in building the Law School’s strengths in this important field.”

Prof Van Buren said “it is an honour to be conferred an Honorary Professorship at the Queens University Belfast School of Law, which is at the forefront of essential conversations about the nature and content of business obligations for human rights. I am excited to be affiliated with such an outstanding group of faculty who are conducting high-quality research in this area and teaching students who will contribute much to making business practice more ethical and humane.”