Annie Bunting
Professor
Law & Society (LASO)
Office: 317 York Lanes, Tubman Institute
Phone: 416 736 2100 Ext: 20505
Email: abunting@yorku.ca
Primary website: Conjugal Slavery in War SSHRC Partnership
Annie Bunting is Professor of Law & Society at York University in Toronto, teaching in the areas of social justice and human rights. She holds the York Research Chair in International Gender Justice & Peacebuilding (2024-2029). Professor Bunting is a graduate of York, having studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School (1988). She received her LL.M. from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1991) and her S.J.D. from the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (1999). Her research expertise includes socio-legal studies of marriage and childhoods, feminist international law, and culture, religion and law. She has published articles in Social and Legal Studies, Journal of Law and Society, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, and chapters in various book collections. Her recent edited collections include: Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (with Lawrance and Roberts) Ohio Univ. Press (2016); and Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (with Joel Quirk), UBC Press, Law & Society Series (2017).
Annie Bunting is an Professor of Law and Society program at York University in Toronto, teaching in the areas of legal pluralism and human rights. Her research expertise includes socio-legal studies of marriage and childhoods, feminist international law, and culture, religion and law. She previously directed an international research collaboration on conjugal slavery in conflict situations with historians of slavery and women’s human rights activist scholars; this project includes partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Canada and England. She is the co-editor of Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Ohio Univ. Press, 2016) with Benjamin Lawrance and Richard Roberts; and Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (Univ. of British Columbia Press, 2017) with Joel Quirk. She is the Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York.
Degrees
Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), University of TorontoMaster of Laws (LL.M. with Distinction), London School of Economics & Political Science, University of London
Bar Admission Course, Law Society of Upper Canada
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
Faculty of Arts (Philosophy), University of Western Ontario
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Editorial Collective, African Studies Review; Editorial Board, Law & Society Review; Editorial Board, Transnational Human Rights Review; CLSA/ LSA Local Organizing Committee for Toronto joint meeting May 2018; Member, SSHRC Connections grant committee (2016-17); Chair, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant committee (2015-16)
Research Interests
- Ronald Pipkin Service Award, Law and Society Association (LSA) - 2022
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
- Ronald Pipkin Service Award, Law and Society Association (LSA) - 2022
http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/2018/01/uganda/
Description:Today, a man named Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. The 42 year old Ugandan is charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda. Ongwen is the only commander with the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army, who is on trial before the ICC, but he wasn’t alone. From 1986 through 2017, over the course of more than 30 years, LRA rebels abducted tens of thousands of people, 20,000 of them children as young as five years old, and held them captive for years. Life of the Law begins our 4-part series on Uganda. Reported by Gladys Oroma from Gulu, Uganda where she reports for local, national and international press, Gladys follows the stories of Beatrice and Samuel, two of the children abducted by the LRA. Throughout our series, Beatrice and Samuel share their experiences, from the nights of their abductions, through their years in captivity, their harrowing escapes and finally, their return home and their lives in Uganda, today.
Start Date:
- Month: Jan Year: 2017
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2018
Collaborator: Life of the Law, and Gladys Oroma
-
Summary:
This SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant (2015-2020) documents cases of so-called forced marriage in conflict situations, places this data in historical context, and impacts the international prosecution of crimes against humanity as well as local reparations programs for survivors of violence. See: csiw-ectg.org
Description:Building on the success of a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (Bunting 2011-2015) and insights gained by the partners over the past four years, this interdisciplinary team of researchers and partners explores the social and legal meaning of conjugal slavery or servile marriage in times of war and the implications of this gender violence in post-conflict situations. Through archival, qualitative, and legal research this Partnership explores the experiences of men and women who were subject to or participated in enslavement in the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda, and Mali.
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2020
Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (Edited with Joel Quirk), Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, Law & Society Series (2017). “Introduction: ‘Contemporary Slavery’ as More than Rhetorical Strategy” with Joel Quirk. http://www.ubcpress.ca/contemporary-slavery
Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Edited with Benjamin N. Lawrance and Richard L. Roberts) Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press (2016). http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Marriage+by+Force%3F
“Can ‘The Oven Bird’ Migrate North of the Border?” in Insiders, Outsiders, Injuries and Law: Revisiting ‘The Oven Bird’s Song’, Mary Nell Trautner Ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) 262-276.
“Narrating Wartime Enslavement, Forced Marriage and Modern Slavery” in Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, Law & Society Series (2017).
“Something Old, Something New? Conceptualizing Forced Marriage in Africa” in Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Edited with Benjamin N. Lawrance and Richard L. Roberts) Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press (2016).
“Monitoring Gender Equality and Violence in Conditions of Structural Inequality and Violence” in Marcia H. Rioux, Paula C. Pinto and Gillian Parekh (Eds.) Disability, Rights Monitoring and Social Change: Building power out of evidence (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2015) 67-79
“Domains of Policy: Law and Society Research on the Family” in Austin Sarat and Patricia Ewick (Eds.) Wiley Handbook of Law and Society, (West Sussex UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2015) 199-211
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism: Private Opting-out in Canada and South Africa” in Albert Breton, Anne Des Ormeaux, Katharina Pistor, and Pierre Salmon (Eds.) Multijuralism: Emergence and Evolution (Ashgate Press, 2009) 77-98 [R]. [And translated into French 2010]
“Migrant Muslim Women’s Interests and the case of ‘Shari’a Tribunals’ in Ontario” (with Shadi Mokhtari) in Vijay Agnew (Ed.) Racialized migrant women in Canada: Essays on Health, Violence, and Equity (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008) 233-264 [R].
“Child Marriage” in K. D. Askin and D. M. Koenig (Eds.) Women and International Human Rights Law Volume 2 (Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2000) 669-696.
“Universalismus von rechts, links und, ‘queer’. Der rechtliche Kampf um homosexuelle Identität am Beispiel Kanadas” (Universalism under fire from right, left, and queer: Canadian Gay and Lesbian Legal Identity) German translation in Hans-Richard Reuter (Ed.) Zur Ethik Theorie der Menschenrechte. Zum Streit um die Universalität einer Idee I (“Ethics of Human Rights. The Dispute Surrounding the Universality of an Idea, Volume 1”) (Mohr Siebeck, 1999) 237-263. Translated by Jacob von Andreae.
Bartels S, Michael S, Roupetz S, et al. “Making sense of child, early and forced marriage among Syrian refugee girls: a mixed methods study in Lebanon” BMJ Global Health 2018:3 http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000509
Bartels SA, Michael S, Roupetz, S, et al. “Making sense of child, early and forced marriage among Syrian refugee girls: a mixed methods study in Lebanon” BMJ Global Health 2018:3 http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000509
“Socio-legal Scholarship in Canada: A Review of the Field” with Harry Arthurs, 41(4) Journal of Law & Society, (2014) 487-99
“Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations: Researching and Prosecuting Old Harms and New Crimes” (2012) 1(1) Canadian Journal of Human Rights 165-185 (inaugural issue).
“’Authentic Sharia’ as cause and cure for women’s human rights violations in northern Nigeria” in Rogaia Abusharaf (Ed.) Special Issue “Gender Justice and Islam” of HAWWA Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 9 (2011) 152–170
“Stages of Development: Marriage of Girls and Teens as an International Human Rights Issue” (2005) 14(1) Social and Legal Studies 17-38, Special Issue: “Sexualized Movements, Gendered Territories & Global Governance” [R].
“Complicating Culture in Child Placements Decisions” 16:1 Canadian Journal of Women & the Law (2004) 137-164, Special Issue in honour of Marlee Kline [R].
“Elijah and Ishmael: Assessing Cultural Identity in Canadian Child Custody Decisions” 42(3) Family Court Review (July 2004) 1-14 [R]
"Feminism, Foucault and Law as Power/ Knowledge" (1992) 30(3) Alberta Law Review 829-842 [R].
Reprinted in B. Dawson (Ed.) Women, Law and Social Change (Toronto: Captus Press, 1993) 215-219.
"Theorizing Women's Cultural Diversity in Feminist International Human Rights Strategies" (1993) 20(1) Journal of Law and Society 6-22 [R].
German translation in Ilse Lenz (Ed.) Wechselnde Blicke: Internationale feministische Theorie (“Exchanging Perspectives: International feminist theory”) (Opladen: Lesker & Budrich Germany: 1996).
Reprinted in A. Bottomley and J. Conaghan (Eds.) Feminist Theory and Legal Strategy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993) 6-22.
“Using SenseMaker® to research Syrian adolescent girls in Lebanon; State and Legal Responses”, Canadian Council for Global Health, Ottawa, 29 October 2017
with Heather Tasker, “Law and the Making and Unmaking of Kinship” CSiW Kampala Institute, May 2017
“Geopolitics and Gender Politics of International Criminal Law in Uganda and Sierra Leone”. Invited speaker. Workshop on Gender, Sexuality and Law, Drake University. 27 October 2017.
“Masculinities, Forced Marriage and Violence in War”, Law & Society Association, New Orleans, 2 June 2016
“The Visual Economies of Child Marriage Advocacy: Images, Activism and Transnational Actors” Law & Society Association conference, Seattle, 29 May 2015.
“Le travail au sein du mariage forcé pendant des guerres” Invited speaker, “Travail Esclave: Memoires et Luttes Sociales” l’université Laval, 21 October 2013.
“The Role of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in writing history” Sierra Leone: Past and Present conference, Freetown, Sierra Leone 27 April 2012.
“What’s Law Got to do with it? Historical memory projects and contemporary criminal prosecutions”, Plenary speaker, Tubman Summer Institute, Toronto, August 25, 2011.
“Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations – Insights from Slavery Scholarship and Feminist Criminal Law” Canadian Law & Society Association annual meeting, Concordia, June 3, 2010
“Integrated Teaching Collaborations” co-organized roundtable discussion, Canadian Law & Society Association annual meeting, Concordia, June 2, 2010
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism” invited Keynote Panel, Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS), Wilfred Laurier University, May 21, 2009
“Law, Societies, and Global Citizenship in the 21st Century” invited panellist, University of British Columbia, May 1, 2009
“Gender and the Politics of ‘Traditional’ Muslim Practices” invited paper, Pembroke Center for teaching and Research on Women, Brown University, March 7, 2008
“Revisiting Questions of Women’s Rights and Culture”, Law & Society Association of Australia and New Zealand international conference, Sydney, Australia, December 10, 2008
“Cultural Contests over Women’s Human Rights; Feminist Perspectives” invited panellist, MCRI Diaspora Project, Atkinson College sponsored panel Human Rights: Does One Culture Own the Concept, York University, October 30, 2006
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism” contracted paper, Emergence and Evolution of Multijuralism, Department of Justice, Toronto, October 27-28, 2006
“Mediating cultural conflicts over women’s rights” invited plenary speaker, Conflicting Fundamental Rights, University of Gent, Belgium, December 15, 2006
“Religion and Human Rights: Muslim Women’s human rights and family arbitration”, Faculty Seminar, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, April 19, 2006
“Social Transformation and the Judiciary – the Canadian Experience” Invited speaker, Black Law Students Forum, University of Cape Town, May 18, 2006
“The ‘tradition effect’ and early marriage in northern Nigeria”, Invited presenter, Gender and Politics of ‘Traditional’ Muslim Practices, Pembroke Center for Study and Research on Women, Brown University, April 14-15, 2006
Comment on Sally Engle Merry’s “Human Rights and Gender Violence in the New World Order: Translating Culture” Harry W. Arthurs Symposium, Osgoode Hall Law School, May 5, 2005
“Competing Religious and State Interests in Family Arbitration – A comment on the Boyd Report”, Religion and the State Seminar Series, Centre for Public Law and Public Policy, York University, March 18, 2005 (with Professors Gavigan and Canefe as commentators)
“International Law and Feminism in an Age of Empire” Roundtable participant, Canadian Law & Society annual meeting, Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. June 28, 2005
“Private Ordering, Political Islam: Debates around Muslim family arbitration in Ontario” invited speaker, Univ. of Massachusetts, Law & Society Colloquium Series, October 27, 2005
“Constructing Muslim Families with/in Canadian Legal Cultures”, Regional Sociolegal Studies Conference, St. Catharines, May 10, 2004
“Disciplining Law: Socio-legal Research Within and Outside Law – Reflections on Fieldwork” Keynote Address: Osgoode Graduate Students’ Conference, Toronto, May 6, 2004
“Rethinking Approaches to Feminism and Law: Women and their Communities” Feminist Law Teachers conference, Toronto, April 30, 2004
“Global Regulation and Local Political Struggles: Early Marriage in Northern Nigeria” (with Sally Engle Merry) presented at Rivers of Law conference, annual meeting of the Law & Society Association, Pittsburgh, PA, June 3, 2003
“Human Rights and Early and Forced Marriages” invited paper to Technical Consultation on Early and Forced Marriages, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 13 to 16 October, 2003.
“Human Rights Contexts of Early Marriage in northern Nigeria” invited paper, Rights in Africa: New Contexts, New Challenges, New Agenda, Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, May 9, 2003
“Alternative Family Law Practices: Mediating Family Disputes in Muslim Communities” invited paper presented, Justice Studies Program, University of New Hampshire, December 13, 2002
“Future of International Human Rights Law” International Law Career Conference, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, March 2, 2002
“Mediating Family Disputes in Toronto Muslim Communities”, Reach of Law, Law & Society conference, Vancouver, B.C., May 30, 2002. [and Osgoode Hall Law School, July 31, 2002]
“Women, Family Law and Islam: Possibilities, Limits and Challenges”, International Women's Day Round Table Discussion, Osgoode Hall Law School, March 4, 2002
“Are Shotgun Weddings a Thing of the Past? Marriage of Teenaged Girls in Several Canadian Provinces”, Law in Action, Law & Society conference, Budapest, July 7, 2001.
“Cultures of Peace, Cross-Cultural Challenges: Women’s Human Rights in Armed Conflict Situations”, Expert group meeting and Open Forum convened by the Asia Women’s Fund in Kyoto, Japan, September 14, 1999.
"Child Brides and Teen Moms: Cultures and Women's Rights" Annie MacDonald Langstaff Workshop, Faculty of Law, McGill University, January 21, 1998
“Marrying the National with the International: Treatment of Marriage and Culture in Canadian Refugee Cases”, presented as breakfast speech to Canadian Council of International Law, Women and International Law Group, Ottawa October 16, 1998.
“Not a Minor Affair” Paper presented at Gender, Sexuality and Law: an international conference, Keele University, England. June 19-21, 1998
“Liability of Private Actors for International Human Rights Violations” Panellist at Network on International Human Rights annual meeting, Ottawa May 13, 1997
“Developing Women’s Human Rights Across Cultures” Moderator and panellist at the Association for Women in Development Forum, Beyond Beijing: From Words to Action, Washington, D.C. Sept. 7, 1996
“Pounded yam & Beverly Hills 90210: Reflections on Research in northern Nigeria”, Panel discussion at Praxis / Nexus: Feminist methodology, theory, community, University of Victoria, B.C., Jan. 20, 1996.
“The Culture of Consent: Consent to Marriage in Nigeria”, presented to the “Feminist Perspectives Bridge”, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Feb. 29, 1996.
“Women’s Human Rights & Early Marriage in northern Nigeria” Presented at the international workshop entitled Women’s Rights Are Human Rights; Focus on Youth, York University, March 7, 1995.
“Bearing Culture: Women, Culture and International Human Rights” (2001) in Ontario Human Rights Commission, Advancing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Implementing International Human Rights Standards into the Legal Work of Canadian Human Rights Agencies, conference proceedings, 42-52 (plenary panel).
“Cultures of Peace, Cross-Cultural Challenges: Women’s Human Rights in Armed Conflict Situations” (2000) in Asia Women's Fund 99-7, Women's Human Rights under Armed Conflict Expert Meeting and Open Forum (Kyoto, Japan), 50-55 and 81-83.
“Contemporary Slavery and the case of Forced Marriage”. Invited plenary, Sociology Symposium, University of Western Ontario, 3 February 2017
“Public Interest Lawyering, Social Justice, and Conjugal Slavery in War”, Invited Lecturer. Baze University Faculty of Law, Nigeria. 22 September 2017.
“Réunion de Restitution de la conférence internationale de Kinshasa sur l’esclavage conjugal, le mariage forcé et l’esclavage sexuel en milieu de conflit” à Bunia, DRC, 27 February 2016.
“Child Marriage in Conflict Zones and Fragile States”, invited roundtable, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, New York, 10 Dec 2013.
“Child, Early and Forced Marriage – International human rights and development strategies” Invited speaker, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), Ottawa, 5 December 2013.
“Collaborative Research on Enslavement for Forced Marriage in War” Invited Speaker, British Institute for East Africa (BIEA), Nairobi, Kenya, December 2012.
Organized 5 paper panel session for Berkshire Conference on History of Women, Genders and Sexualities. “Marriage and Slavery: Exploring the Complexities of ‘Unfreedom’ and Autonomy”, 1-4 June 2017.
Organized International Conference on Conjugal Slavery in War: Histories, Marriage, Masculinity and Justice in Africa, Kinshasa, RDC, February 15-16, 2016. And “Comparative Research on “Conjugal Slavery in War: Themes and Questions”.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/GFWS6002 3.0 | A | Feminist Theory | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC2350 6.0 | A | Law and Society | LECT |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC2350 6.0 | A | Law and Society | LECT |
Annie Bunting is Professor of Law & Society at York University in Toronto, teaching in the areas of social justice and human rights. She holds the York Research Chair in International Gender Justice & Peacebuilding (2024-2029). Professor Bunting is a graduate of York, having studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School (1988). She received her LL.M. from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1991) and her S.J.D. from the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (1999). Her research expertise includes socio-legal studies of marriage and childhoods, feminist international law, and culture, religion and law. She has published articles in Social and Legal Studies, Journal of Law and Society, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, and chapters in various book collections. Her recent edited collections include: Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (with Lawrance and Roberts) Ohio Univ. Press (2016); and Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (with Joel Quirk), UBC Press, Law & Society Series (2017).
Annie Bunting is an Professor of Law and Society program at York University in Toronto, teaching in the areas of legal pluralism and human rights. Her research expertise includes socio-legal studies of marriage and childhoods, feminist international law, and culture, religion and law. She previously directed an international research collaboration on conjugal slavery in conflict situations with historians of slavery and women’s human rights activist scholars; this project includes partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Canada and England. She is the co-editor of Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Ohio Univ. Press, 2016) with Benjamin Lawrance and Richard Roberts; and Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (Univ. of British Columbia Press, 2017) with Joel Quirk. She is the Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York.
Degrees
Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), University of TorontoMaster of Laws (LL.M. with Distinction), London School of Economics & Political Science, University of London
Bar Admission Course, Law Society of Upper Canada
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
Faculty of Arts (Philosophy), University of Western Ontario
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Editorial Collective, African Studies Review; Editorial Board, Law & Society Review; Editorial Board, Transnational Human Rights Review; CLSA/ LSA Local Organizing Committee for Toronto joint meeting May 2018; Member, SSHRC Connections grant committee (2016-17); Chair, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant committee (2015-16)
Research Interests
Awards
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/2018/01/uganda/
Description:Today, a man named Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. The 42 year old Ugandan is charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda. Ongwen is the only commander with the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army, who is on trial before the ICC, but he wasn’t alone. From 1986 through 2017, over the course of more than 30 years, LRA rebels abducted tens of thousands of people, 20,000 of them children as young as five years old, and held them captive for years. Life of the Law begins our 4-part series on Uganda. Reported by Gladys Oroma from Gulu, Uganda where she reports for local, national and international press, Gladys follows the stories of Beatrice and Samuel, two of the children abducted by the LRA. Throughout our series, Beatrice and Samuel share their experiences, from the nights of their abductions, through their years in captivity, their harrowing escapes and finally, their return home and their lives in Uganda, today.
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-producer
Start Date:
- Month: Jan Year: 2017
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2018
Collaborator: Life of the Law, and Gladys Oroma
-
Summary:
This SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant (2015-2020) documents cases of so-called forced marriage in conflict situations, places this data in historical context, and impacts the international prosecution of crimes against humanity as well as local reparations programs for survivors of violence. See: csiw-ectg.org
Description:Building on the success of a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (Bunting 2011-2015) and insights gained by the partners over the past four years, this interdisciplinary team of researchers and partners explores the social and legal meaning of conjugal slavery or servile marriage in times of war and the implications of this gender violence in post-conflict situations. Through archival, qualitative, and legal research this Partnership explores the experiences of men and women who were subject to or participated in enslavement in the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda, and Mali.
Project Type: FundedRole: Project Director
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2020
All Publications
“Can ‘The Oven Bird’ Migrate North of the Border?” in Insiders, Outsiders, Injuries and Law: Revisiting ‘The Oven Bird’s Song’, Mary Nell Trautner Ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) 262-276.
“Narrating Wartime Enslavement, Forced Marriage and Modern Slavery” in Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, Law & Society Series (2017).
“Something Old, Something New? Conceptualizing Forced Marriage in Africa” in Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Edited with Benjamin N. Lawrance and Richard L. Roberts) Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press (2016).
“Monitoring Gender Equality and Violence in Conditions of Structural Inequality and Violence” in Marcia H. Rioux, Paula C. Pinto and Gillian Parekh (Eds.) Disability, Rights Monitoring and Social Change: Building power out of evidence (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2015) 67-79
“Domains of Policy: Law and Society Research on the Family” in Austin Sarat and Patricia Ewick (Eds.) Wiley Handbook of Law and Society, (West Sussex UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2015) 199-211
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism: Private Opting-out in Canada and South Africa” in Albert Breton, Anne Des Ormeaux, Katharina Pistor, and Pierre Salmon (Eds.) Multijuralism: Emergence and Evolution (Ashgate Press, 2009) 77-98 [R]. [And translated into French 2010]
“Migrant Muslim Women’s Interests and the case of ‘Shari’a Tribunals’ in Ontario” (with Shadi Mokhtari) in Vijay Agnew (Ed.) Racialized migrant women in Canada: Essays on Health, Violence, and Equity (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008) 233-264 [R].
“Child Marriage” in K. D. Askin and D. M. Koenig (Eds.) Women and International Human Rights Law Volume 2 (Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2000) 669-696.
“Universalismus von rechts, links und, ‘queer’. Der rechtliche Kampf um homosexuelle Identität am Beispiel Kanadas” (Universalism under fire from right, left, and queer: Canadian Gay and Lesbian Legal Identity) German translation in Hans-Richard Reuter (Ed.) Zur Ethik Theorie der Menschenrechte. Zum Streit um die Universalität einer Idee I (“Ethics of Human Rights. The Dispute Surrounding the Universality of an Idea, Volume 1”) (Mohr Siebeck, 1999) 237-263. Translated by Jacob von Andreae.
Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (Edited with Joel Quirk), Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, Law & Society Series (2017). “Introduction: ‘Contemporary Slavery’ as More than Rhetorical Strategy” with Joel Quirk. http://www.ubcpress.ca/contemporary-slavery
Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa (Edited with Benjamin N. Lawrance and Richard L. Roberts) Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press (2016). http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Marriage+by+Force%3F
Bartels S, Michael S, Roupetz S, et al. “Making sense of child, early and forced marriage among Syrian refugee girls: a mixed methods study in Lebanon” BMJ Global Health 2018:3 http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000509
Bartels SA, Michael S, Roupetz, S, et al. “Making sense of child, early and forced marriage among Syrian refugee girls: a mixed methods study in Lebanon” BMJ Global Health 2018:3 http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000509
“Socio-legal Scholarship in Canada: A Review of the Field” with Harry Arthurs, 41(4) Journal of Law & Society, (2014) 487-99
“Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations: Researching and Prosecuting Old Harms and New Crimes” (2012) 1(1) Canadian Journal of Human Rights 165-185 (inaugural issue).
“’Authentic Sharia’ as cause and cure for women’s human rights violations in northern Nigeria” in Rogaia Abusharaf (Ed.) Special Issue “Gender Justice and Islam” of HAWWA Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 9 (2011) 152–170
“Stages of Development: Marriage of Girls and Teens as an International Human Rights Issue” (2005) 14(1) Social and Legal Studies 17-38, Special Issue: “Sexualized Movements, Gendered Territories & Global Governance” [R].
“Complicating Culture in Child Placements Decisions” 16:1 Canadian Journal of Women & the Law (2004) 137-164, Special Issue in honour of Marlee Kline [R].
“Elijah and Ishmael: Assessing Cultural Identity in Canadian Child Custody Decisions” 42(3) Family Court Review (July 2004) 1-14 [R]
"Feminism, Foucault and Law as Power/ Knowledge" (1992) 30(3) Alberta Law Review 829-842 [R].
Reprinted in B. Dawson (Ed.) Women, Law and Social Change (Toronto: Captus Press, 1993) 215-219.
"Theorizing Women's Cultural Diversity in Feminist International Human Rights Strategies" (1993) 20(1) Journal of Law and Society 6-22 [R].
German translation in Ilse Lenz (Ed.) Wechselnde Blicke: Internationale feministische Theorie (“Exchanging Perspectives: International feminist theory”) (Opladen: Lesker & Budrich Germany: 1996).
Reprinted in A. Bottomley and J. Conaghan (Eds.) Feminist Theory and Legal Strategy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993) 6-22.
“Using SenseMaker® to research Syrian adolescent girls in Lebanon; State and Legal Responses”, Canadian Council for Global Health, Ottawa, 29 October 2017
with Heather Tasker, “Law and the Making and Unmaking of Kinship” CSiW Kampala Institute, May 2017
“Geopolitics and Gender Politics of International Criminal Law in Uganda and Sierra Leone”. Invited speaker. Workshop on Gender, Sexuality and Law, Drake University. 27 October 2017.
“Masculinities, Forced Marriage and Violence in War”, Law & Society Association, New Orleans, 2 June 2016
“The Visual Economies of Child Marriage Advocacy: Images, Activism and Transnational Actors” Law & Society Association conference, Seattle, 29 May 2015.
“Le travail au sein du mariage forcé pendant des guerres” Invited speaker, “Travail Esclave: Memoires et Luttes Sociales” l’université Laval, 21 October 2013.
“The Role of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in writing history” Sierra Leone: Past and Present conference, Freetown, Sierra Leone 27 April 2012.
“What’s Law Got to do with it? Historical memory projects and contemporary criminal prosecutions”, Plenary speaker, Tubman Summer Institute, Toronto, August 25, 2011.
“Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations – Insights from Slavery Scholarship and Feminist Criminal Law” Canadian Law & Society Association annual meeting, Concordia, June 3, 2010
“Integrated Teaching Collaborations” co-organized roundtable discussion, Canadian Law & Society Association annual meeting, Concordia, June 2, 2010
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism” invited Keynote Panel, Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS), Wilfred Laurier University, May 21, 2009
“Law, Societies, and Global Citizenship in the 21st Century” invited panellist, University of British Columbia, May 1, 2009
“Gender and the Politics of ‘Traditional’ Muslim Practices” invited paper, Pembroke Center for teaching and Research on Women, Brown University, March 7, 2008
“Revisiting Questions of Women’s Rights and Culture”, Law & Society Association of Australia and New Zealand international conference, Sydney, Australia, December 10, 2008
“Cultural Contests over Women’s Human Rights; Feminist Perspectives” invited panellist, MCRI Diaspora Project, Atkinson College sponsored panel Human Rights: Does One Culture Own the Concept, York University, October 30, 2006
“Family Law’s Legal Pluralism” contracted paper, Emergence and Evolution of Multijuralism, Department of Justice, Toronto, October 27-28, 2006
“Mediating cultural conflicts over women’s rights” invited plenary speaker, Conflicting Fundamental Rights, University of Gent, Belgium, December 15, 2006
“Religion and Human Rights: Muslim Women’s human rights and family arbitration”, Faculty Seminar, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, April 19, 2006
“Social Transformation and the Judiciary – the Canadian Experience” Invited speaker, Black Law Students Forum, University of Cape Town, May 18, 2006
“The ‘tradition effect’ and early marriage in northern Nigeria”, Invited presenter, Gender and Politics of ‘Traditional’ Muslim Practices, Pembroke Center for Study and Research on Women, Brown University, April 14-15, 2006
Comment on Sally Engle Merry’s “Human Rights and Gender Violence in the New World Order: Translating Culture” Harry W. Arthurs Symposium, Osgoode Hall Law School, May 5, 2005
“Competing Religious and State Interests in Family Arbitration – A comment on the Boyd Report”, Religion and the State Seminar Series, Centre for Public Law and Public Policy, York University, March 18, 2005 (with Professors Gavigan and Canefe as commentators)
“International Law and Feminism in an Age of Empire” Roundtable participant, Canadian Law & Society annual meeting, Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. June 28, 2005
“Private Ordering, Political Islam: Debates around Muslim family arbitration in Ontario” invited speaker, Univ. of Massachusetts, Law & Society Colloquium Series, October 27, 2005
“Constructing Muslim Families with/in Canadian Legal Cultures”, Regional Sociolegal Studies Conference, St. Catharines, May 10, 2004
“Disciplining Law: Socio-legal Research Within and Outside Law – Reflections on Fieldwork” Keynote Address: Osgoode Graduate Students’ Conference, Toronto, May 6, 2004
“Rethinking Approaches to Feminism and Law: Women and their Communities” Feminist Law Teachers conference, Toronto, April 30, 2004
“Global Regulation and Local Political Struggles: Early Marriage in Northern Nigeria” (with Sally Engle Merry) presented at Rivers of Law conference, annual meeting of the Law & Society Association, Pittsburgh, PA, June 3, 2003
“Human Rights and Early and Forced Marriages” invited paper to Technical Consultation on Early and Forced Marriages, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 13 to 16 October, 2003.
“Human Rights Contexts of Early Marriage in northern Nigeria” invited paper, Rights in Africa: New Contexts, New Challenges, New Agenda, Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, May 9, 2003
“Alternative Family Law Practices: Mediating Family Disputes in Muslim Communities” invited paper presented, Justice Studies Program, University of New Hampshire, December 13, 2002
“Future of International Human Rights Law” International Law Career Conference, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, March 2, 2002
“Mediating Family Disputes in Toronto Muslim Communities”, Reach of Law, Law & Society conference, Vancouver, B.C., May 30, 2002. [and Osgoode Hall Law School, July 31, 2002]
“Women, Family Law and Islam: Possibilities, Limits and Challenges”, International Women's Day Round Table Discussion, Osgoode Hall Law School, March 4, 2002
“Are Shotgun Weddings a Thing of the Past? Marriage of Teenaged Girls in Several Canadian Provinces”, Law in Action, Law & Society conference, Budapest, July 7, 2001.
“Cultures of Peace, Cross-Cultural Challenges: Women’s Human Rights in Armed Conflict Situations”, Expert group meeting and Open Forum convened by the Asia Women’s Fund in Kyoto, Japan, September 14, 1999.
"Child Brides and Teen Moms: Cultures and Women's Rights" Annie MacDonald Langstaff Workshop, Faculty of Law, McGill University, January 21, 1998
“Marrying the National with the International: Treatment of Marriage and Culture in Canadian Refugee Cases”, presented as breakfast speech to Canadian Council of International Law, Women and International Law Group, Ottawa October 16, 1998.
“Not a Minor Affair” Paper presented at Gender, Sexuality and Law: an international conference, Keele University, England. June 19-21, 1998
“Liability of Private Actors for International Human Rights Violations” Panellist at Network on International Human Rights annual meeting, Ottawa May 13, 1997
“Developing Women’s Human Rights Across Cultures” Moderator and panellist at the Association for Women in Development Forum, Beyond Beijing: From Words to Action, Washington, D.C. Sept. 7, 1996
“Pounded yam & Beverly Hills 90210: Reflections on Research in northern Nigeria”, Panel discussion at Praxis / Nexus: Feminist methodology, theory, community, University of Victoria, B.C., Jan. 20, 1996.
“The Culture of Consent: Consent to Marriage in Nigeria”, presented to the “Feminist Perspectives Bridge”, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Feb. 29, 1996.
“Women’s Human Rights & Early Marriage in northern Nigeria” Presented at the international workshop entitled Women’s Rights Are Human Rights; Focus on Youth, York University, March 7, 1995.
“Bearing Culture: Women, Culture and International Human Rights” (2001) in Ontario Human Rights Commission, Advancing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Implementing International Human Rights Standards into the Legal Work of Canadian Human Rights Agencies, conference proceedings, 42-52 (plenary panel).
“Cultures of Peace, Cross-Cultural Challenges: Women’s Human Rights in Armed Conflict Situations” (2000) in Asia Women's Fund 99-7, Women's Human Rights under Armed Conflict Expert Meeting and Open Forum (Kyoto, Japan), 50-55 and 81-83.
“Contemporary Slavery and the case of Forced Marriage”. Invited plenary, Sociology Symposium, University of Western Ontario, 3 February 2017
“Public Interest Lawyering, Social Justice, and Conjugal Slavery in War”, Invited Lecturer. Baze University Faculty of Law, Nigeria. 22 September 2017.
“Réunion de Restitution de la conférence internationale de Kinshasa sur l’esclavage conjugal, le mariage forcé et l’esclavage sexuel en milieu de conflit” à Bunia, DRC, 27 February 2016.
“Child Marriage in Conflict Zones and Fragile States”, invited roundtable, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, New York, 10 Dec 2013.
“Child, Early and Forced Marriage – International human rights and development strategies” Invited speaker, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), Ottawa, 5 December 2013.
“Collaborative Research on Enslavement for Forced Marriage in War” Invited Speaker, British Institute for East Africa (BIEA), Nairobi, Kenya, December 2012.
Organized 5 paper panel session for Berkshire Conference on History of Women, Genders and Sexualities. “Marriage and Slavery: Exploring the Complexities of ‘Unfreedom’ and Autonomy”, 1-4 June 2017.
Organized International Conference on Conjugal Slavery in War: Histories, Marriage, Masculinity and Justice in Africa, Kinshasa, RDC, February 15-16, 2016. And “Comparative Research on “Conjugal Slavery in War: Themes and Questions”.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/GFWS6002 3.0 | A | Feminist Theory | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC2350 6.0 | A | Law and Society | LECT |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC2350 6.0 | A | Law and Society | LECT |
