Barbara Sutton

Barbara Sutton is a Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is also affiliated with the departments of Sociology and of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies. Professor Sutton's scholarly interests include globalization, body politics, human rights, and women's movements, particularly in Latin American contexts. The topics she is drawn to are broad and diverse, but reflect an overarching concern with how systems of social inequality--based on gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation--structure social experience and affect marginalized groups. Another thread that connects much of her work is the transnational significance of the issues she addresses, from globalization to militarism. She has used her interest in women's bodies and embodiment as a springboard for exploring various lines of inquiry: cultural norms of femininity and beauty, the bodily scars of neoliberal economics, reproductive rights issues, interpersonal, structural, and state violence, women's activism, and cross-border social processes.