I wrote a book chapter for the text Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice edited by by Honors College Dean Rajini Srikanth and Professor and Chair of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Elora Chowdhury which has now published. I was grateful for two editors of color who brought their feminist knowledges to editing my chapter and the book as a whole.
It was really a pleasure to work with Srikanth and Chowdhury to produce a chapter that is truly interdisciplinary when thinking through LGBTQ Politics and Human Rights. As editors they pushed me to look at examples from contexts I would not have considered without their support. In pratice this meant offering texts outside of the predominently white, Western works often cited as a way to discuss LGBTQ politics when writing about how it matters in global contexts. This was especially valuable in my framing of the politics presented through the case studies of LGBTQ human rights organizing in Palestine, India and the United States.
This book also presents a unique opportunity to highlight the voices of the UMass Boston community. I got to know some of the other authors while at the UMass Boston because I intentionally TA'd in the Women & Gender Studies department as a way to continue to collaborate with feminist scholars and activists while a doctoral student. It was also during my time at UMass Boston that the new Human Rights program got off the ground, so it is really an important time for this book to come out for faculty, staff and students at the university. Read more about the book from a piece by Colleen Locke:
Edited by Honors College Dean Rajini Srikanth and Professor and Chair of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Elora Chowdhury, the book touches on a wide range of human rights topics, including the emergence of Latin American solidarity, the education of displaced children in refugee camps, and how to talk about sexual violence and sexual agency in film. All of the contributors are from UMass Boston, and include a mix of faculty, doctoral students, undergraduate students, and activists.
You can also read my chapter "Global LGBTQ Politics and Human Rights" here. Some of the issues addressed in the chapter include a look at LGBTQ rights as sexual politics. LGBTQ politics at the UN and also discussion questions for the classroom.