UMass Boston

Chris Bobel, Professor of Women's Gender Sexuality Studies

Christina Bobel

Department:
Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies
Title:
Professor
Location:
Wheatley Hall Floor 05
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Biography

Chris Bobel is interested, most broadly, in the diverse efforts of actors to effect social change especially around issues that are stigmatized, silenced and marginalized.

After devoting nearly two decades to the field of critical menstruation studies, she is now engaged in an ethnographic project--involving her WGS students--exploring contemporary activism inspired by grief and trauma.

Area of Expertise

Critical Menstruation Studies; activism and social movements; feminist theories; Body Studies; Critical Trauma Studies

Degrees

PhD, Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

MA, Speech Communication, University of Maine

BA, Speech Communication, Miami University

Professional Publications & Contributions
  • Bobel, C. Winkler, I, Fahs, B, Hasson, K, Kissing, E, and Roberts, T-A. (Eds.) (2020) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. OPEN ACCESS.
  • Bobel, C. (2019) The Managed Body: Developing Girls & Menstrual Health in the Global South. London: Palgrave Macmillan [winner of the 2020 American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Development Outstanding Book Award]
  • Bobel, C. & Kwan, S. (Eds). (2019) Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, & Transformations. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Bobel, C. & Kwan, S. (Eds.) (2011). Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules, Challenging the Norms. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Bobel, C. (2010). New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. New Brunswick, NJ & London: Rutgers University Press.
  • Bobel, C. & Agigian, A. (Guest Co-Editors) (2017). Special Cluster of Women's Reproductive Health "Menstrual Health: A Matter of Human Rights." Volume 4, Issue 3.
  • Bobel, C. & Kissling, E. (Guest Co-Editors) (2011). Special Issue of Women's Studies an Interdisciplinary Journal "Menstruation & Representation." Volume 40, Issue 2.
  • Bobel, C. (2019). "Beyond Dignity: The Mis/Use of Discourses of Human Rights in Development Campaigns: A Case Study." In Chowdhury, E. & Srikanth, R. (Eds). Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Bobel, C. & Fahs, B. (2018). "The Messy Politics of Menstrual Activism." In Reger, J. (Ed). Nevertheless They Persisted: Feminisms and Continued Resistance in the U.S. Women's Movement. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Bobel, C. (2014). "The End of When in 'Telling Truths: Creative Writing on Motherhood and Mothering.'" Sheena Wilson and Diana Davidson, (Co-Editors). Bradford, ON: Demeter Press (pp. 25-34)
  • Bobel, C. (2013). "Mothers and Daughters, Research and Family, Life and Loss: Reflections on Inseparability" Family and Work in Everyday Ethnography. Tamara Mose Brown & Joanna Dreby, Co-Editors. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press (pp. 97-113)

Additional Information

Chris is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Signs and Women's Reproductive Health.

Chris is often consulted and quoted by the mainstream media about the rapidly burgeoning global menstrual activist movement.