Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference

Brooke A. Ackerly is Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge, 2000) and co-editor of Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge, 2006).

• 1. Universal human rights in a world of difference: challenging our thinking; Part I. Epistemology, Diversity, and Disagreement in Theory and Practice: 2. Universal human rights?; 3. Universalisms and differences; 4. Immanent and universal human rights: more legitimate than reasonable; Part II. A Methodology for Immanent Theory: 5. Feminist curb cutting: a methodology for exposing silences and revealing differences: immanent study of universal human rights; 6. Listening to the silent voices, hearing dissonance: a methodology for interpretation and analysis; Part III. Immanent Universal Human Rights: Theory and Practice: 7. An immanent and universal theory of human rights: curb cutting in theory; 8. Terrain(s) of difficulty: obligation, problem-solving and trust; 9. Feminist strategies; 10. 'If I can make a circle'.

'As an activist I find Ackerly's theorizing of human rights in action so insightful. She gives a name to our approach - curb-cut feminism: by being humble and attentive to those made invisible or 'different' by the mainstream we are better able to realize universal human rights. This book is a very useful map for anyone committed to justice in an often messy terrain.' Joanna Kerr, former Executive Director of AWID, the Association for Women's Rights in Development