SIA professor co-edits book on the intersection of human rights and literature

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Penn State School of International Affairs professor Sophia McClennen co-edited the recently published book The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights, which provides a comprehensive, transnational, and interdisciplinary map of human rights and literature.

The first of its kind, the publication covers essential issues and themes, necessarily crossing disciplines between the social sciences and humanities. Drawn from many different global contexts, the included essays offer an introduction for those approaching the study of literature and human rights for the first time, looking for new insights and interdisciplinary perspectives, or interested in new directions for future scholarship. The book includes essays from the leading scholars in the topics of humanity, gender, identity, and subjectivity throughout history. The essays consider the impact of human rights literature, trace the development of the literature over time, and visit the different ways human rights stories are crafted.

McClennen co-edited the book with Alexandra Schultheis Moore, English professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and second-year SIA student Cassandra Ford helped prepare and copyedit the manuscript.

In addition to being SIA associate director, McClennen is an SIA professor, directs Penn State's Center for Global Studies and has ties to the departments of Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Women's Studies. She has published nine books, and writes regularly for the Huffington Post and Salon.com.