Welcome
Dedicated to interdisciplinary and critical dialogue on human rights, the Rapoport Center’s Working Paper Series (WPS) publishes innovative papers by established and early-career researchers as well as practitioners. The goal is to provide a productive environment for debate about human rights among academics, policymakers, activists, practitioners, and the public.
Authors from all disciplines and institutions are welcome to submit papers. We publish papers on a variety of human rights and social justice topics, and we particularly welcome papers focusing on issues and topics affecting the Global South. We are especially interested in the following: reproductive justice and sexual rights; environmental justice and climate justice; peace and nuclear disarmament; inequality; and the future of work.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and evaluated by the WPS interdisciplinary editorial committee, which includes graduate and professional students from across the University of Texas. The WPS committee provides comments and feedback to authors before the paper is published online. Publication in the WPS does not preclude future publication elsewhere; in fact, many of our working papers have since been published in academic journals and edited volumes.
Each year, the WPS publishes the winning paper from the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on Gender and Human Rights and the Zipporah B. Wiseman Prize for Scholarship on Law, Literature, and Justice.
Our Latest Posts:
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Is the Neoliberal Education Market Gender-Neutral? A Comparative Review of the Global North and Global South — by Wajiha Saqib
Wajiha Saqib (Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas at Austin) Abstract Over the past several decades, neoliberal ideology, including concepts of marketization and competition, has entered public education. For example, we see charter schools, aka Public-Private Partnerships schools (PPP), expanding globally. Neoliberal policies often downplay the role of gender in society, and
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“Only a Piece of the Total Prophecy”: Ghost Dancing Against Nuclear Waste
by Jennifer Graber, Department of Religious Studies and Affiliate Faculty in Native American & Indigenous Studies, University of Texas at Austin This piece by Jennifer Graber is a part of the WPS Special Series on “Disarming Toxic Empire.” All contributions to this Special Series were originally delivered as talks at the Rapoport Center’s Disarming Toxic
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COMMENTARY: “‘Only a Piece of the Total Prophecy’: Ghost Dancing Against Nuclear Waste” by Jennifer Graber
Commentary by Nancy Blanco This is a commentary written by PhD student Nancy Blanco (University of Texas, Nursing) in response to Professor Jennifer Graber’s paper, “‘Only a Piece of the Total Prophecy’: Ghost Dancing Against Nuclear Waste.” Blanco wrote this commentary as a member of the Working Paper Series Editorial Committee. Professor Jennifer Graber’s paper,
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An “Islamic Bomb” and the Politics of Scientific Dissent: Pakistan’s Feminist and Peace Disquietudes amidst an Unending Cold War
by Vanja Hamzić, Professor of Law, History, and Anthropology, SOAS University of London [1] This piece by Vanja Hamzić is a part of the WPS Special Series on “Disarming Toxic Empire.” All contributions to this Special Series were originally delivered as talks at the Rapoport Center’s Disarming Toxic Empire conference in Spring 2024. A commentary
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COMMENTARY: “An ‘Islamic Bomb’ and the Politics of Scientific Dissent: Pakistan’s Feminist and Peace Disquietudes amidst an Unending Cold War”
Commentary by Jackie Cheng This is a commentary written by law student Jackie Cheng (University of Texas) in response to Professor Vanja Hamzić’s paper, “An ‘Islamic Bomb’ and the Politics of Scientific Dissent: Pakistan’s Feminist and Peace Disquietudes amidst an Unending Cold War.” Cheng wrote this commentary as a member of the Working Paper Series
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COMMENTARY: How I Learned to Keep Worrying and Teach the Bomb
This is a commentary written by law student Katelyn Lilley (University of Texas) in response to Professor Kirsten Cather’s paper, “How I Learned to Keep Worrying and Teach the Bomb.” Lilley wrote this commentary as a member of the Working Paper Series Editorial Committee. In her paper, “How I Learned to Keep Worrying and Teach
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How I Learned to Keep Worrying and Teach the Bomb | Kirsten Cather
By Kirsten Cather, Professor of Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin *** This piece by Kirsten Cather is a part of the WPS Special Series on “Disarming Toxic Empire.” This paper is a revised version of a talk delivered at the Rapoport Center’s Disarming Toxic Empire conference in Spring 2024.Through “Disarming Toxic Empire,” the
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Victim, Criminal, Worker, or Lover? The Discourses of Anti-Sex Trafficking & the Lived Realities of Commercialized Sex in Southeast Asia
This post is one of our Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship in Gender and Human Rights, Working Papers .by Ella Tan View/download paper Winner, Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on Gender and Human Rights (2024) Abstract: This paper explores anti-sex trafficking as a ‘humanitarian’ concern, arguing that the discourses of ‘rescue’ and ‘rehabilitation’ in the realm of anti-sex trafficking are not simply (failures of) humanitarian intervention to help sex workers, but are part of a neocolonial
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Reciting Law After Auschwitz
This post is one of our Working Papers, Zipporah B. Wiseman Prize for Scholarship on Law, Literature and Justice .by Benjamin Goh View/download paper Winner, Zipporah B. Wiseman Prize for Scholarship on Law, Literature, and Justice (2024) Abstract: This paper reads in parallel two specimens of jurisprudence and literature that were republished in the aftermath of Nazism and the Holocaust. Hans Kelsen’s Reine Rechtslehre (‘Pure Theory of Law’) (1934/1960) and Maurice Blanchot’s La Folie du jour (‘The Madness of the Day’)
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Gendered Money and Relational Work: Women’s Money and Labor in Matrimonial Disputes in India
By Upasana Garnaik View/download paper Abstract: What is the meaning and role of women’s money in matrimonial disputes? Economic sociologists have challenged the notion that money is uniform and fungible. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I highlight the legal and familial mechanisms through which money becomes gendered. By integrating concepts from economic sociology
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