Austin Choi Fitzpatrick
www.austinchoifitzpatrick.com
Areas of Interest
Political Sociology,Social Movements, Human Rights and Social Change
Profile
My dissertation draws on qualitative fieldwork in India to explore the impact emancipation from slavery has on slaveholders, the enslaved, and bystanders. Slavery is often viewed as a purely historical phenomenon when, in fact, contemporary slavery remains widespread. Social movement actors have responded with a contemporary abolitionist movement which initiates human rights interventions on victims’ behalf. To date, however, scholarship on contemporary slavery has undertheorized the role played by social control, rather than legal ownership, the outcome of social movement interventions depends on changes in the attitudes and behavior of the slaveholding class.
Books
2012. From Human Trafficking to Human Rights: Rethinking Contemporary Slavery. Co-edited with Alison Brysk. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press (series on Human Rights).
Articles
2011. McVeigh, Rory, Josh Dinsman, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, and Priyamvada Trivedi. “Obama vs. Clinton: Categorical Boundaries and Intra-Party Electoral Outcomes.” Social Problems 58(1): 47-68.
Awards and Fellowships
2011 -National Science Foundation: Dissertation Improvement Grant. “How Human Rights Interventions Affect Local Norms and Practices”
2009 -The Edward Schils - James Coleman Memorial Award for Best Student Paper
Honorable Mention -Theory Section, American Sociological Association
"Causality in Contemporary American Sociology"
Positions
- Senior Assistant Editor, Mobilization, Notre Dame and San Diego State University
- Assistant Director, Center for the Study of Social Movements and Social Change
- Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame
