Kathryn Sikkink

I’m an international relations specialist best known for my work on human rights, international norms, transnational advocacy networks and social movements, and transitional justice. I teach at the Harvard Kennedy School, where I’m the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy. I’m trying to write both for scholars and for members of the public interested in human rights and justice, especially my new book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibility, and the books The Justice Cascade, Evidence for Hope, and Activists beyond Borders. My books have been awarded prizes, including the Grawemeyer Award (for Ideas for Improving World Order), the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award, and the WOLA/Duke University Award. In my most recent book The Hidden Face of Rights (Yale University Press, 2020) I argue that we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize human responsibilities, giving examples from diverse issues like climate change, voting, digital privacy, and campus sexual assault. I’ve been a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and a Guggenheim fellow.