As a teacher-scholar, Dr. Feather uses a feminist lens and intersectional approach to challenge ubiquitous power asymmetry which systematically (dis)advantages categories of people based on gender, race, class, culture, language, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, beauty, and other social identities.  She promotes progressive global legal reform and policy change in women’s rights and sustainable models of capacity-building and women’s empowerment through her research, global collaboration, social justice advocacy, and publications in both peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes as well as local, advocacy-based journals and cultural studies. 

 

In the classroom, Dr. Feather promotes diversity through deliberate inclusivity and innovative teaching strategies to foster cross-cultural and interdisciplinary student engagement in glocal communities by including local service-learning, global collaboration, and applied-learning components in each course, allowing students to combine their critical thinking skills and academic training with synergistic networking to confront real-world issues.

 

In her research, Dr. Feather uses a mixed-methods approach. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt exploring the impact of discriminatory legal codes, patriarchal cultural norms, and conservative religious interpretations on violence against women (VAW) and other marginalized categories, which she explores through in-depth interviews with stakeholders across the political spectrum -- both inside and outside the state.  Dr. Feather also conducts cross-sectional time-series studies across the 49 Muslim-majority countries analyzing the impact of women’s personal, legal, socioeconomic, and political empowerment on democratization, good governance, and reduced corruption.  She has presented her research at conferences and workshops across the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Morocco, and Lebanon and she is published in the Journal of Women and Human Rights in the Middle East, the Review of Middle East Studies, the Journal of North African Studies, as well as numerous edited volumes as well as advocacy-based local journals and cultural series.  Her first solo book project, Torn Between Bad Choice, analyzes the impact of systemic discrimination on the lives of Moroccan and Tunisian women with special chapters dedicated to those who fall outside the traditional marital framework, i.e. single mothers, divorcees, widows, prostitutes (often conflated), and their children, and the unique contribution feminist activism plays in progressive legal reform.

 

Dr. Feather has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Kansas and MAs in Arabic/Islamic Studies and International Affairs from the University of Kansas and George Washington University respectively.