Out of Place

Lynette J. Chua is Professor of Law at National University of Singapore and Head of Studies for the Law-Liberal Arts Double-Degree Programme at Yale-NUS College. She is the author of three books, The Politics of Rights and Southeast Asia (2002), The Politics of Love in Myanmar (2018), and Mobilizing Gay Singapore (2014). She has earned awards in law and society, sociology, and Asian studies. Chua is also the co-editor of The Asian Law & Society Reader and past president (2022-2023) of the Asian Law & Society Association. Mark Fathi Massoud is Professor of Politics and Director of Legal Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. Massoud is the author of two books, Law's Fragile State (2014) and Shari'a, Inshallah (2021). He has earned awards in law and society, political science, sociology, religious studies, and Middle East studies. The recipient of Carnegie, Guggenheim, and Mellon Foundation fellowships, Massoud gave the Evans-Pritchard Lectures at All Souls College, Oxford, and he is a Berlin Prize fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.

• 1. Introduction: the power of positionality Mark Fathi Massoud; 2. Research as accompaniment: reflections on objectivity, ethics, and emotions Leisy J. Abrego; 3. Pretty and young in places where people get killed in broad daylight Sindiso Mnisi Weeks; 4. Out of place studying China's sex industry Margaret L. Boittin; 5. Feeling at home outside: embracing out-of-placeness in the study of law and resistance Lynette J. Chua; 6. Out of place in an Indian court: notes on researching rape in a district court in gujarat (1996-1998) Pratiksha Baxi; 7. At odds with everything around me: vulnerability politics and its (out of) place in the socio-legal academy Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen; 8. Trigueño International law: on (most of) the world being (always, somehow) out of place Luis Eslava; 9. Becoming a familiar outsider: multi-sited and multi-temporal research in plural legal contexts Keebet von Benda-Beckmann.

'Out of Place brings together nine of law and society's most intriguing thinkers to discuss the influence of marginality, privilege, and social position on their work. The volume is a rich and compelling set of unblinking conversations about positionality's complex and evolving role in sociolegal research—a truly field-shaping book.' Kathryne Young, George Washington University