Chris Bobel is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she teaches courses on Gender & the Body, Feminist Theory, Feminist Research Methods, Women in US Social Movements and Feminist Activism. Her scholarship lies at the intersection of social movements, gender, health and embodiment, sites where feminist thinking becomes feminist doing. Since 2003, Chris has been engaged in the study of efforts to advance menstrual health as a matter of human rights and reproductive justice. Her publications include New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation and The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South. She is also co-editor (with Samantha Kwan) of Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, Transformations and Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules. She is also lead editor of the first ever Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Click here to see a complete listing of Chris’s work and media mentions.
Media
- New York Times (2018) – Menstrual Pads Can’t Fix Prejudice
- MediaPlanet/LA Times (2018) – Embracing the Power of the Period
- WASHfunders (2018) – Menstruators Need More Than Something to Bleed On, They Also Need Information and Support
Select Publications
- Bobel, C., Winkler, I. T., Fahs, B., Hasson, K.A., & Roberts, T. (2020). The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Winkler, I. T., Bobel, C., Houghton, L. C., Elhadad, N., Gruer, C., & Paranjothy, V. (2020). The Politics, Promises, and Perils of Data: Evidence-Driven Policy and Practice for Menstrual Health. Women’s Reproductive Health, 1-17.
- Bobel, C. (2018) The Managed Body: Developing Girls & Menstrual Health in the Global South. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Bobel, C. (2018). “Beyond Dignity: The Mis/Use of Discourses of Human Rights in Development Campaigns: A Case Study.” In Chowdhury, E. & Srikanth, R. (Eds). Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Bobel, C. & Agigian, A. (Guest Co-Editors) (2017). Special Cluster of Women’s Reproductive Health “Menstrual Health: A Matter of Human Rights.” Volume 4, Issue 3.
- Bobel, C. & Kissling, E. (Guest Co-Editors) (2011). Special Issue of Women’s Studies an Interdisciplinary Journal “Menstruation & Representation” Volume 40, Issue 2.
- Bobel, C. (2010). New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. New Brunswick, NJ & London: Rutgers University Press.
Menstrual Health & Gender Justice 