Filiz Kahraman
Areas of interest
- Comparative law and social movements
- International law and courts
- Human rights
- Labor politics
- European politics
- Social movements
Biography
Filiz Kahraman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD from the University of Washington and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mortara Center for International Studies at Georgetown University.
Her research investigates international human rights, comparative legal mobilization, labor movements, and the rise of authoritarianism in Europe. Her book, Labor in Hard Times: Workers’ Legal Mobilization at the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2026) examines why labor activists in Europe have turned to international human rights courts at a time of weakening labor power and what this shift has meant for workers’ lives, rights, and movements.
Her work has appeared in Annual Review of Law and Social Science, European Journal of International Relations, Law and Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Perspectives on Politics. Her commentary on current human rights issues and political developments in Europe has been featured in The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, openDemocracy, and Bianet.
Select publications
- What Makes an International Institution Work for Labor Activists? Shaping International Law Through Strategic Litigation. Law & Society Review. (Forthcoming).
- “Activists as Allies of International Courts: Assessing the Impact of Legal Mobilization at International Courts.” In Research Handbook on Law, Movements, and Social Change. Eds. Steve Boutcher, Corey Shdaimah, and Michael Yarbrough. Edward Elgar Publishing. [Forthcoming].
- “On the Interdependence of Liberal and Illiberal/Authoritarian Legal Forms in Racial Capitalist Regimes...The Case of the United States.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 17. Pp. 483-503. Co-authored with Michael McCann. (2021).
- “Domestic Courts, Transnational Law, and International Order” European Journal of International Relations. 26(1_suppl), pp. 184–208. Co-authored with Nik Kalyanpur and Abe Newman (2020).
- “The European Court of Human Rights: Towards a Holistic Approach to Human Rights” in The Institutions of Human Rights: Developments and Practices. Eds. Susan Kang and Gord DiGiacomo. University of Toronto Press (2019).
- “A New Era for Labor Activism? Strategic Mobilization of Human Rights against Blacklisting.” Law & Social Inquiry. 43(4), pp.1279-1307 (2018).
Awards & recognition
- National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2014-2015
- SSHRC, Partnership Development Grant (co-applicant), 2019-2022
- Lynne Rienner Publishers Award for Best Dissertation, International Studies Association, Human Rights Section, 2019