Associate Professor of Politics and Sociology
Co-chair, Women’s and Gender Studies
Willamette University
Salem, Oregon
[email protected]
I am associate professor of politics, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. I received a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota. I trained as a critical international relations scholar, though I draw on a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches in my work.
My research examines how people negotiate and creatively reformulate ideas about human rights in particular places. As part of this work, I have spent a lot of time studying survivor testimonies at international criminal tribunals. I am particularly interested in the wide-ranging work of interpreters, translators and many other people who do indispensable formal and informal language work at these institutions.
In addition, my recent work focuses on race and racism in international relations. In collaboration with my students, I study critical race pedagogies, with particular attention to the ways language, culture and institutions structure access to knowledge-making.
Areas of Interest
- Human rights and international justice
- Global governance in East and Central Africa
- Transnational feminisms
- Pan-African and anticolonial scholarship and social movements
- Race and racism in international relations
- Critical race pedagogies
- Qualitative and collaborative methodologies
Key Publications on Language Work
- Koomen, Jonneke, “Language Work at International Criminal Courts,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, Special Issue: The International Criminal Court — A Site of Gender Justice, 16(4), December 2014, pp. 581-600.
- Koomen, Jonneke, ” ‘Without These Women, the Tribunal Cannot Do Anything’: The Politics of Witness Testimony on Sexual Violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(2), Winter 2012-3, pp. 253-277.
Other Relevant Publications
- Koomen, Jonneke, “International Relations/Black Internationalism: Reimagining Teaching and Learning about Global Politics,” International Studies Perspectives, 20(4), November 2019, pp. 390-410.
- Koomen, Jonneke, “The International Criminal Court” in The Institutions of Human Rights: Developments and Practices, edited by Gordon DiGiacomo and Susan Kang (University of Toronto Press 2019).
- Koomen, Jonneke, “The International Criminal Court and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda” in Oxford University Press Handbook on Women, Peace and Security, edited by Jacqui True and Sara Davies (Oxford University Press 2019).
- Koomen, Jonneke, “Global Governance and the Politics of Culture: Campaigns Against Female Circumcision in East Africa,” Gender, Place and Culture, 21(2), February 2014, pp. 244-261.
- Koomen, Jonneke, “Governança global, ‘cultura local’ e campanhas contra o corte genital feminino,” Cadernos Adenauer, O Global e o Loca, December 2015, pp. 109-133 (in Brazilian-Portuguese).
- Winterbottom, Anna, Jonneke Koomen, and Gemma Burford, “Female Genital Cutting: Cultural Rights and Rights of Defiance in Northern Tanzania,” African Studies Review, 52(1), April 2009, pp. 47-71.