Rebecca Sanders

Rebecca Sanders is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She previously completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Toronto and received her M.A. and B.A. from McGill University.

Dr. Sanders’ scholarly agenda lies at the intersection of international law, international human rights, and international security. Her recent book, Plausible Legality: Legal Culture and Political Imperative in the Global War on Terror (Oxford University Press, 2018), and related journal articles examine the capacity of international human rights and humanitarian law to constrain controversial state security practices such as torture, indefinite detention, targeted killing, and mass surveillance. Looking forward, she is particularly interested in the consequences of the Trump administration’s politics for international legal norms and the regulation of state violence.

In addition to her work on security, Dr. Sanders has researched backlash against international women’s rights and sexual orientation and gender identity rights at the United Nations and is developing a new project on human rights norm erosion in global politics. She is also participating in a community engaged research initiative with the Cities for CEDAW movement, which aims to promote international human rights law through local politics.