Brooke A. Ackerly

Professor of Political Science
Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Law

Brooke Ackerly studies political theory and integrates her theoretical work with empirical research on activism. Her publications include Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge, 2000), Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference (Cambridge, 2008), and Doing Feminist Research (co-authored with Jacqui True (Palgrave Macmillan2010). She is currently working on the intersection of global economic, environmental, and gender justice. She teaches courses on feminist theory, feminist research methods, human rights, contemporary political thought, and gender and the history of political thought. She is the winner of Vanderbilt University’s Graduate Teaching Award and the Margaret Cuninggim Mentoring Prize. Professor Ackerly is the founder and principal investigator of the Global Feminisms Collaborative, a group of scholars and activists developing ways to collaborate on applied research for social justice. She advises academics and donors on evaluation, methodology, and the ethics of research. She serves the profession through committees in her professional associations including the American Political Science Association, the International Studies Association and the Association for Women's Rights and Development. She has been a member of the editorial board for Politics and Gender, the journal of the APSA’s Women and Politics Section, since its founding.

Research Interests

Democratic theory, feminist methodologies, human rights, social and environment justice

Representative Publications

• “Girls Rising for Human Rights: not Magic, Politics,” Journal of International Political Theory (forthcoming 2016)
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• Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science, Palgrave Macmillan (2010, second edition forthcoming) (with Jacqui True)
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• “Developing Experience, Networks, and Capacities: Leadership as Practiced in Feminist Human Rights Activism,” 3 Politics & Gender 455 (2014)
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• “Politics in the Age of Academic Irony,” 1 Politics, Groups and Identities 98 (2013)
• “External and internal non-state actors and human rights,” 11 Contemporary Political Theory 229 (2012)
• “Recent Developments in Intersectionality Research: Expanding Beyond Race and Gender,” 8 Politics & Gender 1 (2012) (with Rose McDermott
• Feminist Theory and Gender Studies, International Studies Compendium (editor, 2010)
• Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference, Cambridge University Press (2008)
• Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism, Cambridge University Press (2000)
• Feminist Methodologies for International Relations, Cambridge University Press (editor, with Maria Stern and Jacqui True, 2006). Chinese language edition, China Translation & Publishing Corporation, 2015.
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