I'm a historian of bodies and empires. I have published works on colonialism and the United Nations. I also wrote on masculinity and decolonization. I'm now working on a project on the aesthetics of Third Worldism in postwar Italy. I am an Associate Professor of History at Montgomery County Community College in the greater Philadelphia area. I completed a PhD in History at SUNY Binghamton in May 2014. Supervisors: Dean Tim Brown at MontCo and PhD advisor (2014) Jean Quataert at SUNY Binghamton
Abstract This article discusses the challenges of promoting women’s rights during the development... more Abstract This article discusses the challenges of promoting women’s rights during the development era of the United Nations. The process of decolonization created a fertile terrain to test theories of equality and development for the women of the newly created countries. The UN and its agencies imagined the post-colonial state as one in which development and gender equality were strictly interconnected but such interconnections happened through conflicts over defining women’s rights. The sensation of second wave feminism alarmed some of the constituencies involved in designing international policies for the new states. Women delegates from newly independent countries challenged the western-based category of women’s rights and welcomed conceptions of rights that were based on the pre-colonial history and the anticolonial resistance period. They had to navigate a goal of equality as well as avoid new western interferences in the constructions of the newly born nation-state.
Abstract This article discusses the challenges of promoting women’s rights during the development... more Abstract This article discusses the challenges of promoting women’s rights during the development era of the United Nations. The process of decolonization created a fertile terrain to test theories of equality and development for the women of the newly created countries. The UN and its agencies imagined the post-colonial state as one in which development and gender equality were strictly interconnected but such interconnections happened through conflicts over defining women’s rights. The sensation of second wave feminism alarmed some of the constituencies involved in designing international policies for the new states. Women delegates from newly independent countries challenged the western-based category of women’s rights and welcomed conceptions of rights that were based on the pre-colonial history and the anticolonial resistance period. They had to navigate a goal of equality as well as avoid new western interferences in the constructions of the newly born nation-state.
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