Janne Mende is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Kassel. She has taught at the universities of Giessen, Berlin and Kassel. From 2010 to 2013, she conducted her PhD research, which was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG). In 2011, she published a book in German on universalism, cultural relativism and female genital mutilation/cutting. She was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham and a visiting scholar at the Department of Politics, New School for Social Research, New York.

• List of Tables / List of Abbreviations / Introduction / SECTION I: DECISIVE APPROACHES TO COLLECTIVE RIGHTS, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY / 1. Liberalism and Communitarianism / SECTION II: RETHINKING THE KEY THEMES: SOCIETY, CULTURE, IDENTITY / 2. Society and culture / 3. Identity / SECTION III: INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS / 4. Indigenous Rights in History and the Present / 5. Indigenous Demands in the United Nations / 6. Indigenous Rights: Culture, Identity, and Beyond / Conclusion: Culture and Identity as Collective Human Rights? / Appendix: UNPFII documents / References / Index

Mende's book ably explicates what's at stake in debates over the human right to culture and identity--freedom and constraint; emancipation and repression--and offers a promising way forward as we navigate these tensions.