Vulnerable Studies (M. Fineman and R. Garland-Thomson)

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Utilizing the structure the Feminism and Legal Theory Project provides, Emory Law School is poised to organize a collaborative university-wide initiative focused upon vulnerable populations. This new initiative will engage existing scholarship at Emory and cultivate new areas of interdisciplinary scholarship. In addition to law, scholars in comparative literature (those emphasizing trauma and testimony studies), anthropology, philosophy, political science, and Women’s Studies have expressed their eagerness to engage with others in support of this initiative. In order to further broaden participation in the project, there will be a series of bi-weekly seminars for Emory faculty and graduate students, complemented by workshops attracting external scholars interested in state obligations to vulnerable populations. The initiative will also financially support collaborative research and organize at least one major conference on the topic of vulnerability and state responsibility.

Click here for a list of Upcoming Events and Workshops

If you have any questions or need additional information about the FLT Project, please contact Jean Wynn, via email at jwwynn@emory.edu

RDI Program Associate:
Jean Wynn
Phone: 404-712-2420
Fax: 404-727-1973

Accomplishments in academic year 2007-2008

The Vulnerable Studies Project, directed by Martha Albertson Fineman and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, has also been busy:

• March 7 – 8 held a national conference on Economic Vulnerability at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

• April 16 – 18th hosted Byran Turner (University of Singapore) and Peadar Kirby (Limerick University) in a two and a half day workshop on the concept of vulnerability.  This was attended by a wide range of Emory University faculty from a variety of disciplines.

• May 30 - 31organized three panels at the annual Law and Society meetings, which were held in Montreal: ”Vulnerability and Theory,” Economic Vulnerability,” and Children and Vulnerability.” 

• Hired a two-year post doctorate fellow, Eunjung Kim who will be working on issue concerning ethnicity, disability, and sexuality.  Her office is in the Law School and she will be teaching graduate level courses open to everyone, but housed in Women’s Studies.

• Organized  a monthly reading group on vulnerability for the 2008-2009 academic year to be held at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry and open to the University community.

• Organized a monthly works-in-progress session for faculty or graduate students working with the concept of vulnerability for the 2008-2009 academic year to be held at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry.

• Arranged for two exhibits developed by historian Rickie Solinger on motherhood, poverty, prison policy, and class to be held January 15 – March 12, 2009 in Skatten Gallery.  Various city-wide events are being planned in conjunction with area schools and universities, including Morehouse, Spellman, Agnes Scott and Georgia Tech, to complement the exhibits.  There will also be a full schedule of programming to be held at Emory during the duration of the exhibits.

Vulnerability Studies Post-Doctoral Fellow


Eunjung Kim is a postdoctoral fellow in Vulnerability Studies Project in the School of Law and the Race and Difference Initiative at Emory University. She received a Ph.D in disability studies at University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a recipient of AAUW international dissertation scholarship and a postdoctoral mentoring fellowship from Future of Minority Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007-08. Her essays appeared in Wagadu: Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies and in Canadian Journal of Film Studies and a book chapter in the collection, Intersectionality and Beyond: Law, Power and the Politics of Subjectivity (Routledge). She has also published on women with disability in South Korea.

She is currently working on a genealogy of asexuality and its connection to disability and an essay titled "Disability Heaven and Hell: Unpacking nationalism and disability policy." Her broader interests include disabled women in South Korea, sex industry and disability, transnational feminist disability studies theories, disabled people's sexuality, conflicts among marginalized people, and disability in global representation.