New Directions in Feminism and Human Rights

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, feminists are at a critical juncture to re-envision and re-engage in a politics of human rights. Interdisciplinary feminist conversations among scholar-activists can both challenge and enrich new directions in feminism and human rights. The scholarly and activist writings that comprise this collection advance both research and critical conversations about feminism and human rights by revealing the transformative potential of a feminist human rights praxis that embraces both critique and collective justice. The editors’ method has been to move beyond a wholesale dismissal of human rights so that the book may begin new dialogues that envision transnational, gender and antiracist social justice approaches.

This book features work that engages academic critiques of human rights frameworks yet goes further by exploring the potential of human rights activism ’from below’. These groundbreaking chapters and conversations provide evidence of the persistent challenges and the attendant possibilities inherent in feminist human rights activism and theorizing - they offer this book, underscoring the creative displays of grassroots resistance by women globally and affirming transnational feminist solidarity.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Feminist Journal of Politics.

Dana Collins is an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Fullerton. Her research in the Philippines follows urban renewal, sexual labour and the emergence of gay urban spaces, which is published in two special issues of Gender & Society (2005 and 2009) and one of Tourist Studies (2007). Her current research explores militarization, sexual violence and representation in the Congo.

Sylvanna M. Falcón is an assistant professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has been published in Gender & Society, Societies Without Borders, and Social Justice. She serves on the editorial collective of Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences.

Sharmila Lodhia is an assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Santa Clara University. Her research examines legal responses to violence against Indian women through a transnational lens. Her articles have been published in Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, Women’s Studies Quarterly and Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. She previously worked as a civil rights attorney for women.

Molly Talcott is an assistant professor in Sociology and Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles and an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar-activist who researches race, gender, labor and human rights in the Americas. She serves on the editorial board of Gender & Society and on the editorial collective of Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences.