Dr Vandita Khanna, (Apr. 21, 2026)Dr Vandita Khanna
I am immensely grateful to have been able to pursue a PhD in Law at the University of Cambridge. Having completed my graduate studies, I was keen to deepen my understanding of equality and human rights law within a rigorous and diverse academic environment. Receiving a full scholarship from the Cambridge Trust and Sidney Sussex College gave me the academic freedom and security to be able to devote my time to my doctoral research without financial constraints.
The highlight of my time at Cambridge was being supervised by Dr Kirsty Hughes. Dr Hughes’ mentorship was pivotal in shaping not only my doctoral research but also my academic journey more broadly. I owe so much to her, for giving me the opportunity to explore different facets of academia and to hone different skillsets, from publication and presentation to organisation and collaboration. I feel deeply privileged to be able to co-convene a Law and Race speaker series at the Faculty of Law, co-organise a CRASSH workshop on Race and European human rights law, and co-edit a forthcoming book with Dr Hughes. These experiences confirmed to me the utmost significance of a supportive and engaged mentor and an academic environment that is open to creating space for new conversations.
The PhD opened up a vast range of opportunities for me. Throughout my doctoral studies, I found the human rights law community at Cambridge to be extremely welcoming, as I presented my research internally at the Centre for Public Law and assisted with organising the European Human Rights Law Conference. The financial support at Sidney Sussex College and the Faculty made it possible for me to present parts of my PhD at workshops and conferences in the US, UK, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany. I also had the opportunity to offer supervisions in Human Rights Law to Law Tripos students and workshops on Race, Gender and the Law to LLM students. Alongside the PhD, I was involved in editorial work, first as a Senior Editor at the student-run Cambridge Law Review and then as the Case Commentary Editor at the European Human Rights Law Review. In addition, I benefitted greatly from interdisciplinary research environments as a visiting fellow at the Hertie School, Centre for Fundamental Rights (Berlin) in 2023 and, owing to a Cambridge partnership, as a Fox International Fellow at Yale University in 2024-25.
These diverse experiences equipped me, step-by step, for an academic career. Immediately after submitting my thesis, I started a postdoctoral research position at the Academy for European Human Rights Protection at the University of Cologne and have since been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship, which will give me the space and time to continue my research. I am truly grateful to the Faculty for sustaining a welcoming culture of rigorous research and constructive feedback and to the administrative staff for their genuinely outstanding support during my time at Cambridge.
Dr Jeanne-Rose Arn, (Apr. 20, 2026)Dr Jeanne-Rose Arn
I chose to pursue my PhD at Cambridge's Faculty of Law because it offered something I could not find elsewhere: a place where ambitious interdisciplinary legal research was taken seriously and supported at the highest level. My thesis, Self-Deception and Responsibility, examined how legal responsibility should be understood in the light of recent research in cognitive science — a question that required drawing on moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, and criminal law theory. The Faculty provided both the scope and the support to pursue this question fully.
A defining part of my experience was the guidance I received from my supervisors, Professors Antje du Bois-Pedain, Richard Holton, and Findlay Stark. Each brought a distinct perspective, and their complementary expertise enabled me to fully develop my work. They fostered an environment that combined curiosity, rigour, and real generosity. I benefited from close attention to my developing arguments while also being given the space to find my own research voice. Their support extended beyond the thesis itself: they encouraged my publications, introduced me to leading scholars, and helped shape my academic and professional development.
The Faculty’s wider intellectual life deepened this interdisciplinary experience further. I regularly participated in the Cambridge Forum on Legal and Political Philosophy and the Cambridge Political Philosophy Workshop, and presented my work at specialist workshops where philosophers, psychologists, and legal theorists engaged in sustained, critical dialogue. There is something distinctive about working in a community where ideas are taken seriously enough to be genuinely challenged - and where that challenge both feels generative and builds confidence.
This ethos of exchange extended across the wider Cambridge community. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, I joined an international and diverse network committed to addressing global challenges, placing my work within a broader sense of purpose. The collegiate system brought me into regular contact with scholars across disciplines, and some of the most generative conversations about my research took place with historians, engineers or economists. Opportunities such as the Aspen Ideas Festival prize and the King’s Entrepreneurship Programme further broadened my perspective and sharpened my understanding of how ideas develop beyond academia.
Doctoral research is demanding, and Cambridge holds its students to a genuinely high standard. There were periods when my arguments resisted resolution - moments that, in retrospect, were where the most important thinking happened. What made it rewarding was the quality of the environment: mentors across my College and the Law Faculty, colleagues, and friends who understood what it required and offered steady support, as well as the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which made it possible for me to focus fully on my research. Cambridge provides the best conditions for sustained work.
I am now a Senior Research and Teaching Fellow in Law and Philosophy at the University of Geneva and a practising lawyer specialising in international arbitration. The ability to move between frameworks, to work through complex problems carefully, and to test arguments rigorously before committing to them are habits of mind I developed during my PhD and continue to rely on every day. For those drawn to intellectually ambitious research in law, particularly on pressing questions that extend beyond traditional boundaries, Cambridge offers an exceptional environment to pursue such work.