For Admay, visiting professor of public policy and an expert in international human rights law, practical and scholarly work in the United States and her native South Africa has been equal parts exciting and difficult. Admay--who is partially blind-told TV's Meg Bourdillon about these challenges.
What was it like to live in the U.S. during apartheid, after your family was expelled from South Africa?
When I moved to the U.S., I didn't have any citizenship at all. I'm sure I had some cultural problems. [People] just assume that because you're white and you're from South Africa, certain things flow from that. You address those expectations by showing them, not telling them, that they're wrong.
What are human rights crises today?
The U.S. is in a particular moment where Americans need to take responsibility for our political system and what is done in our name. People don't understand the degree to which our legal system is under attack. You can't care about it if you don't know about it.
Has your human rights work led you into any dangerous situations?
We needed to be able to prove that these people [whom the South African government kidnapped] were being taken into custody. The other two lawyers I was working with were actually too scared to go into these police stations and get these log books.
I had to persuade [police officers] that that was something they should trust me with. [One station commander] took me into his office, and he started to drink.
I was really scared that this was the kind of situation where I would be raped. [But] I was able to get out of there with all the information. I was not raped.
What do you think of how the local area has handled the racist past?
I'm really proud of the fact that Greensboro and North Carolina are the first place where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was tried.
We're not going to be able to move on until we come to grips with the fact that, at least in the immediate aftermath [of earlier racial crimes], we failed. That kind of real engagement with discourses outside the law is very important.
How has the University helped you to continue working in the face of increasing vision and mobility challenges?
People have to believe that you are as good a teacher, as good a scholar, as you were before. I've been really impressed with the public policy school for doing whatever is necessary. Even as a visiting professor, I have been treated as a person who needs to be considered along with the other faculty. Nobody likes to need accommodations.
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