Monday, October 14 · 1 - 2:30pm EDT - Online
Struggles for the Human: Violent Legality and the Politics of Rights
Part of the CSSGJ Seminar Series Autumn 2024 collection
Struggles for the Human: Violent Legality and the Politics of Rights - a Public Talk by Lara Montesinos Coleman
By Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) is very pleased to be welcoming Dr Lara Montesinos Coleman. The title of her talk is "Struggles for the Human: Violent Legality and the Politics of Rights"
About Lara - Lara is a Reader in International Relations, Law and Development and Director of the Centre for Global Political Economy
She read Philosophy and Theology at the University of Oxford and holds master’s degrees in International Relations and Research Methods from the University of Bristol. Lara completed her PhD (2011) and taught in the Politics Department at Bristol after a few years working on human rights in Colombia, working with a network of peasant, trade union and indigenous organisations with whom she maintains strong links. Her first permanent academic appointment was at Durham University, but she moved to Sussex when the opportunity to join the Department of International Relations arose in 2012.
Between 2014 and 2016 Lara held an Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) early career fellowship, the outcome of which was her book "Struggles for the Human: Violent Legality and the Politics of Rights" (Duke University Press 2024). She is co-director of the ISRF research group, ‘Co-Producing Political Theory and Philosophy with Grassroots Constituencies’, as well as a member of the Colombian Caravana UK Lawyers Group.
In Struggles for the Human, Lara Montesinos Coleman blends ethnography, political philosophy, and critical theory to reorient debates on human rights through attention to understandings of legality, ethics, and humanity in anticapitalist and decolonial struggle. Drawing on her extensive involvement with grassroots social movements in Colombia, Coleman observes that mainstream expressions of human rights have become counterparts to capitalist violence, even as this discourse disavows capitalism’s deadly implications. She rejects claims that human rights are inherently tied to capitalism, liberalism, or colonialism, instead showing how human rights can be used to combat these forces. Coleman demonstrates that social justice struggles that are rooted in marginalized communities’ lived experiences can reframe human rights in order to challenge oppressive power structures and offer a blueprint for constructing alternative political economies. By examining the practice of redefining human rights away from abstract universals and contextualizing them within concrete struggles for justice, Coleman reveals the transformative potential of human rights and invites readers to question and reshape dominant legal and ethical narratives.