Kathryn Sikkink is the Arleen C. Carlson Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and has a M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Professor Sikkink’s publications include Ideas and Institutions: Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina; Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, (co-authored with Margaret Keck), winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order (1999) and the International Studies Association’s Chadwick Alger Award for best work in the area of international organ¬ization (1999); and The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (co-edited with Thomas Risse and Stephen Ropp).

Her current research interests focus on the influence of international law on domestic politics, especially in the area of human rights, transnational social movements and networks, and on the role of ideas and norms in international relations and foreign policy.With the support of the Twentieth Century Fund, she is currently involved in a research project on the international human rights idea and the evolution and effectiveness of human rights policies, especially in Latin America.