Kathryn Libal

Director, Human Rights Institute

Associate Professor, Social Work

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Primary Research Theme

Social-Ecological Systems

Secondary Research Themes

Governance and Urban Services, Healthy Cities, People and the City

Research Interests

My research addresses the politics and practices of voluntarism in refugee resettlement and asylum processes in the United States and the localization of human rights norms, such as the right to adequate food, housing, and health care in the United States.

Selected Urban-Related Publications

Books

Land, M., Libal, K., & Chambers, J. (Eds.) (forthcoming September 2021), Beyond borders: The human rights of noncitizens. Cambridge University Press.

Libal, K. & Harding, S. (2015). Human rights-based community practice in the United States. New York: Springer.

Hertel, S. & Libal, K. (Eds.) (2011).  Human rights in the United States: Beyond exceptionalism. New York/London: Cambridge University Press.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Libal, K., Harding, S., Popescu, M., Berthold, S. M., & Felten, G. (2021). Human rights of forced migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic: An opportunity for mobilization and solidarity. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, early view at https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-021-00162-4.

Libal, K. & Kashwan, P. (2020). Solidarity in times of crisis. Journal of Human Rights, 19, 5, 537-546.

Harding, S. & Libal, K. (2020). Doing something to fight injustice”: Voluntarism, private and community co-sponsorship, and refugee resettlement as political engagement in the United States, Private refugee sponsorship: Concepts, cases and consequences, McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Harding, S. & Libal, K. (2019). War and the public health disaster in Iraq. In C. Lutz and A. Mazzarino (Eds.), War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New York: NYU Press. [Revised and reprinted (with permission) from M. Singer & G.D. Hodge (Eds.), The war machine and public health: A critical medical anthropological examination of the human costs of armed conflict and the international violence industry (pp. 59-87). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.]

Berthold, S. M. & K. Libal (2019). Future directions to support the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. In Refugees and asylum seekers: Comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. New York: Praeger.

Libal, K., Felten, G., & Harding, S. (2019) State and community approaches to refugee resettlement: Voluntarism and the residual welfare state. In Refugees and asylum seekers: Comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. New York: Praeger.

D’Angelo, K., Libal, K., Seymour, N., & Hamel, R. (2017). After the “Great Recession”: Excluding “able-bodied” adults from food entitlements in the United States. Journal of Policy Practice, 16, 4, 452-471.