CLEAR Faculty Fellow Quisquella Addison Presents Research on Rwanda
06.23.2025 — Professor Quisquella Addison, this year’s Center for Law, Equity and Race Faculty Fellow, presented her work before a group of legal and economics scholars on June 12. As a fellow, Addison has examined the possibilities of developing culturally responsive and community-driven legal and economic frameworks that promote sustainable growth. Much of her research originated through recent trips to Rwanda.
“Over the last three years, traveling to Rwanda, I started to think about community, trust and the ways in which we work with organizational clients embedded in communities,” she said. Questions central to her research include “how are the interventions we are engaging in actually responsive to community needs.”
Following Addison’s presentation, a workshop explored the ways in which students across disciplines can be taught to engage with organizational clients in ways that are culturally appropriate, trauma-informed and grounded in community-defined needs. Addison was joined by Professor Jill Dupree, an economics expert at Northeastern, Dimitrie Sissi Mukanyiligira, an author, gender activist and survivor of the Rwandan genocide, and 25 scholars, students and activists, including CLEAR faculty co-director Professor Margaret Burnham.
Workshop participants reflected on trust-building techniques, how to navigate cultural difference with humility and tools for centering client agency in their work. Together, they offered a framework for training students to enter unfamiliar communities not as experts, but as active learners and collaborators practicing sustained allyship.
Addison and Dupree will take these learnings with them as they embark on teaching a Northeastern Dialogue of Civilizations program this summer focused on economic development in Rwanda.
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About Northeastern University School of Law
The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country. Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences through its signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. More than 1,100 employers worldwide in a wide range of legal, government, nonprofit and business organizations participate in the program. With a focus on social justice and innovation, Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experiences to successfully practice law.
For more information, contact d.feldman@northeastern.edu.