Christina Bobel
Biography
Chris teaches courses on Gender & the Body, Feminist Theory, Feminist Research Methods, Gender & Race in US Social Movements, Global LGBTQ+ Activism, and Feminist Activism. During 2024-25, she designed and taught courses in the Gender Studies PhD program at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer.
Degrees
Ph.D. 1999. Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee [Specialization in Race, Class & Gender].
M.A. 1988. Speech Communication, University of Maine, Orono.
B.A. 1986. Speech Communication, Miami University, Ohio.
Professional Publications & Contributions
Books
Bobel, Chris. Accidental Activists: When Grief Turns to Action after Traumatic Death. New York: NYU Press (forthcoming in June 2027)
Bobel, Chris, I. Winkler, B. Fahs, K. Hasson, E. Kissling, and T.-A. Roberts, eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Bobel, Chris, and S. Kwan, eds. Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2019.
Bobel, Chris. The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Bobel, Chris, and S. Kwan, eds. Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules, Challenging the Norms. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2011.
Bobel, Chris. New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010.
Bobel, Chris. The Paradox of Natural Mothering. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
Articles and Book Chapters [from 2020 onward]
Bobel, Chris. “The Good Period Is the One We Don’t Know About: How Human Rights Discourse (Inadvertently) Accommodates Menstrual Stigma.” In Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice, 2nd ed., edited by E. Chowdhury and R. Srikanth. New York: Routledge (forthcoming).
Bobel, Chris, and L. Green. “The Affective Stakes of Feminist Regret in the Precarious Present: Introduction to Feminism, Anti-Feminism and the Mobilization of Regret.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 52, no. 2 (forthcoming).
Winkler, I., and Chris Bobel. “Academic Approaches to Menstrual Research.” In The Sage Encyclopedia of Menstruation and Society, vol. 1, 4–8. SAGE Publications, 2026.
Bobel, Chris. “Foreword.” In Experiences of Menstruation from the Global South and North: Towards a Visualised, Inclusive, and Applied Menstruation Studies, edited by K. Standing, S. Parker, and S. Lotter. Proceedings of the British Academy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
Pichon, A., K. Jackman, L. Mamykina, I. Winkler, Chris Bobel, and N. Elhadad. “The Messiness of the Menstruator: Assessing Personas and Functionalities of Menstrual Tracking Apps.” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 29, no. 2 (2022): 385–99.
Hennegan, J., I. Winkler, Chris Bobel, D. Keiser, J. Hampton, G. Larsson, V. Chandra-Mouli, M. Plesons, and T. Mahon. “Menstrual Health: A Definition for Policy, Practice, and Research.” Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2021).
Winkler, I., and Chris Bobel. “‘Bizarre’ and ‘Backward’: Myth-Busting, Modernity and Saviorism in Representations of Menstrual Beliefs and Practices in the Popular Media.” Feminist Formations 33, no. 2 (2021): 313–39.
Winkler, I., Chris Bobel, L. Houghton, N. Elhadad, C. Gruer, and V. Paranjothy. “The Politics, Promises and Perils of Data: Evidence-Driven Policy and Practice for Menstrual Health.” Women’s Reproductive Health (2020).
Bobel, Chris, and B. Fahs. “From Private to Public: Shifting from the Politics of Bloodless Respectability to Radical Menstrual Embodiment.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 45, no. 4 (2020): 955–83.
Bobel, Chris. “Introduction: Menstruation as Lens; Menstruation as Opportunity.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, edited by Chris Bobel, I. Winkler, B. Fahs, K. Hasson, E. Kissling, and T.-A. Roberts. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Additional Information
For over two decades, Chris has been a pathbreaking force in menstrual activism, arguing that menstrual health is not a niche concern but a matter of human rights and reproductive justice. She is past president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research and a frequent media voice on the politics of menstruation. Her books New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation and The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South — winner of the 2020 Outstanding Book Award from the American Sociological Association — have shaped the field. Her co-edited Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, published open-access, has been downloaded over 3.7 million times worldwide.
Now, Chris's scholarship has taken a profoundly personal turn. After the death of her teenage daughter, she found herself drawn into grief and death studies — not despite her identity as an activist-scholar, but because of it. Her forthcoming seventh book, Accidental Activism: From Grief to Action after Traumatic Loss (Open Access with NYU Press), weaves together interviews with grieving activists and her own story, illuminating how trauma can become a catalyst for social change.
Chris also serves as Book Review Editor for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and co-edited a special issue on "Feminism, Antifeminism and the Mobilization of Regret" with Laura Green (due out in Winter 2027)