Essential Reading(s)

The University of Pennsylvania Press has made a longtime commitment to human rights scholarship through its Studies in Human Rights Series, led by the wise and indefatigable editor Bert Lockwood.  Whether you are reading for personal enlightenment, purchasing for your library, putting together course readings, or thinking about gift-giving, we highlight the series' recent and forthcoming titles relevant to US human rights:

(1)  Human Rights Transformation in Practice, ed. Tine Destrooper and Sally Engle Merry (Oct. 2018).  "In Human Rights Transformation in Practice, editors Tine Destrooper and Sally Engle Merry collect various approaches to the questions of how human rights travel and how they are transformed, offering a corrective to those perspectives locating human rights only in formal institutions and laws. Contributors to the volume empirically examine several hypotheses about the factors that impact the vernacularization and localization of human rights: how human rights ideals become formalized in local legal systems, sometimes become customary norms, and, at other times, fail to take hold. Case studies explore the ways in which local struggles may inspire the further development of human rights norms at the transnational level."

(2) Beyond Virtue and Vice:  Rethinking Human Rights and Criminal Law, ed. Alice Miller and Mindy Jane Roseman (Jan, 2019).  "Beyond Virtue and Vice examines the ways in which recourse to the criminal law features in work by human rights advocates regarding sexuality, gender, and reproduction and presents a framework for considering if, when, and under what conditions, recourse to criminal law is compatible with human rights. Contributors from a wide range of disciplinary fields and geographic locations offer historical and contemporary perspectives, doctrinal cautionary tales, and close readings of advocacy campaigns on the use of criminal law in cases involving abortion and reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, sex work and prostitution law, human trafficking, sexual violence across genders, child rights and adolescent sexuality, and LGBT issues.

(3) Joyful Human Rights, William Paul Simmons and Semere Keseste (Jan. 2019).  "​A pioneering work that thoughtfully explores human rights in the context of the most joyful of human experiences, Joyful Human Rights disrupts current human rights thinking and practice and leads us to challenge the foundations of human rights afresh.  The term “human rights” is now almost always discussed in relation to its opposite, “human rights abuses.” Syllabi, textbooks, and academic articles focus largely on abuses, victimization, and trauma with nary a mention of joy or other positive emotions. 
Focusing on joy shifts the way we view victims, perpetrators, activists, and martyrs. Importantly, focusing on joy mitigates our propensity to express paternalistic or salvatory attitudes toward human rights victims."  More information is available here.

 In addition to these titles, the Penn Series includes many other recent books, focusing on topics ranging from Argentina to Thailand.  Check out the entire list here.