Balakrishnan’s Work Creates Dialogue Among Feminist Scholars

Her work has earned support from the Ford Foundation and continues to interest fellow scholars globally.

Dr. Balakrishnan will join a dialogue on feminist politics as the keynote speaker at Columbia University Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s “What is Feminist Politics Now? Local and Global” conference on September 19. 

The conference will explore the changing meanings of feminism, emerging social movements within the United States and beyond, the common interests of women and men, and questions about how women within the post-industrial west can effectively relate to, and remain engaged with, issues that arise from diverse locations. 

At the conference, Dr. Balakrishnan will engage the issues surrounding “Sex, Struggle and Daily Bread” with an introduction given by Alice Kessler-Harris (Columbia University). Dr. Balakrishnan’s address will follow a dialogue focused on the place of women in feminist work, showcasing the viewpoints of Dorothy Allison (writer), Judith Jack Halberstam (University of Southern California), Uma Narayan (Vassar College), Sara Ruddick (The New School) and moderator Marianne Hirsch (Columbia University). 

The first day of the two-day event will take place at Columbia Law School, located at 104 Jerome Greene Hall. On Saturday, September 20, the conference will convene in the Faculty Room of the Columbia Low Library. 

In 2006, Marymount Manhattan College was awarded a $171,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support “Realizing Economic and Social Rights: A Comparative Country Study,” identifying how economic, social and cultural rights can be incorporated into discussions of development policy and human rights, especially in Mexico and the United States. Dr. Balakrishnan collaborated with Mexico-based Fundar, Center for Analysis and Investigation to complete the project during a two-year period. 

Dr. Balakrishnan earned a Ph.D. in economics from Rutgers University and has worked at the Ford Foundation as a program officer in the Asia Regional Program. Her fields of research include gender and economic development, global inequality and labor issues. She is interested in the connection between global economic institutions and cross border organizing, the relationship between changing conditions of work, gender dynamics and the global economy in addition to theology and ethics. 

Dr. Balakrishnan is also currently on the boards of Women’s Edge Coalition and the U.S. Network on Human Rights. 

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse population by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development.

Published: September 19, 2008