Current Research Projects
My research agenda is held together by my interest in socio-economic rights, development, gender, social justice and substantive equality. My policy experience has allowed me to follow discussions at various levels from global processes to local challenges which is reflected in my research approaches. Non-discrimination, (in)equality, and processes of exclusion, marginalization, stigmatization and vulnerabilities are a key theme of my research. I am especially interested in social norms, stereotypes and stigmatization and how these influence the realization of human rights. Issues that are considered taboo, in particular around shit and blood, have piqued my interest.
Menstrual Health & Gender Justice
I am intrigued by the field of menstruation studies because it unites the personal and the political, the intimate and the public, the physiological and the socio-cultural. My work is informed by asking which voices are centered and which ones are marginalized in research and policy-making across different countries and cultures.
In response to the shift in perception which creates momentum around menstruation, awareness and action, we have established a working group on Menstrual Health and Gender Justice for which I serve as project director. The Handbook on Critical Menstruation Studies, the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive and carefully curated multidisciplinary and genre-spanning view of the state of the field, opening up new directions in research and advocacy. It is animated by the central question: ‘“what new lines of inquiry are possible when we center our attention on menstrual health and politics across the life course?” The chapters—diverse in content, form and perspective—establish Critical Menstruation Studies as a potent lens that reveals, complicates and unpacks inequalities across biological, social, cultural and historical dimensions. Another project seeks to review menstrual health policy developments in several countries to assess which populations they target. We are interested in exploring how to most productively support, inform, and normalize the menstrual health of marginalized populations. |
The Human Right to Sanitation
Building on extensive work on the right to water, I am increasingly turning to the human right to sanitation. Sanitation is not only about an individual’s right to have access to a toilet or latrine. Inadequate sanitation leads to contamination of the environment, of public spaces and water bodies through feces and wastewater and therefore has a negative impact on public health and the life and well-being of everyone in the community, affecting their human rights to health, life, food, and a healthy environment.
Catherine Flowers from the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise, JoAnn Ward at CLS Law, a group of students and have published a report on inequalities in access to sanitation across the United States "Flushed and Forgotten," following on an earlier article examining the right to sanitation in Alabama . |
UN Human Rights Mechanisms
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The Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights
The Sustainable Development Goals continue the tradition of global target-setting in development. The human rights community has engaged to an unprecedented level in the elaboration and discussion of these goals. To present a critical early review, Carmel Williams and I have co-edited a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on the topic with a focus on the cross-cutting themes of equality and accountability and a substantive focus on the health goal.
With regard to water and sanitation specifically, I have contributed an assessment of the relevant SDG targets building on previous research that addressed the MDGs and included proposals how to monitor inequalities. |