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Mala Htun

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Mala Htun
Born(1969-08-23)August 23, 1969
DiedJanuary 24, 2025(2025-01-24) (aged 55)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Awards
  • Andrew Carnegie Fellow
  • Best Dissertation on women and politics, APSA
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Mala Nani Htun (August 23, 1969 – January 24, 2025) was an American political scientist. She was a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico. Htun studied comparative politics, particularly women's rights and the politics of race and ethnicity with a focus on Latin America.

Background

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Htun was born on August 23, 1969.[1] She studied International Relations at Stanford University, graduating with an AB in 1991.[2] She then studied political science at Harvard University, obtaining an AM in 1996 and a PhD in 2000.[2][3] Htun's PhD dissertation, Private Lives, Public Policies: Divorce, Abortion, and Family Equality in Latin America, won the Best Dissertation Prize from the Women and Politics section of the American Political Science Association.[4]

Htun died from cancer on January 25, 2024, at the age of 55.[5]

Career

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From 2000 until 2011, Htun was a professor of political science at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College.[2][3] During this time she was also a 2002-2003 Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University,[3] a 2004 Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame,[6] and a Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi International Affairs Fellow in 2007.[2] In 2011, Htun joined the faculty in the department of political science at the University of New Mexico.[2]

In addition to a number of publications in journals such as The American Political Science Review[7] and the Latin American Research Review,[8][9] Htun has also written three books: Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (2003), Inclusion without Representation: Gender Quotas and Ethnic Reservations in Latin America (2016), and The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women's Rights Around the World (2018).[10]

In a review of Sex and the State, Patricia Hipsher wrote that, by seeking "to answer the question of how and why states make particular policy decisions on gender-related issues", Htun wrote one of the first comparative studies of gender-related public policy reform in Latin America.[11] According to Courtney Jung in a review of Htun's second book, Inclusion without Representation is a study of institutions that "are designed to ensure that members of historically excluded groups are elected to political office" inspired by the work of Arend Lijphart and Merwin Crawford Young.[12]

In 2015, Htun was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, for her work to "explore the ways that laws and public policies shape women's economic agency, and how economic empowerment affects gender relations and social norms".[13]

Htun's 2018 book, The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women's Rights Around the World, was coauthored with S. Laurel Weldon. Htun and Weldon studied the evolution of women's rights issues such as family law, abortion, paid parental leave, and contraception from 1975 to 2005.[14] For The Logics of Gender Justice, Htun and Weldon received the Human Rights Best Book Award for 2019 from the International Studies Association.[15]

Htun worked in several capacities on the advancement of traditionally underrepresented groups in political science. She was a Special Advisor for Inclusion and Climate in the School of Engineering at the University of New Mexico,[10] and the Deputy Director for Advance, a program that aims to promote the success and inclusion of faculty who are white women or minorities.[10][16] Htun also coordinated inclusion efforts in the American Political Science Association.[17]

Htun's work has been mentioned in media such as The New York Times,[18] The Washington Post,[19] and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.[20]

Selected works

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  • Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (2003)
  • Inclusion without Representation: Gender Quotas and Ethnic Reservations in Latin America (2016)
  • The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women’s Rights Around the World (2018)

Selected awards

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  • Best dissertation on women and politics, American Political Science Association (2000)[4]
  • Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2015)[13]

References

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  1. ^ "Mala Htun and Douglas Turner". New York Times. New York. January 8, 2006. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Mala Htun". University of New Mexico Department of Political Science. 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Fellow Mala Htun". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. March 16, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Women and Politics Award Recipients". American Political Science Association. 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  5. ^ "UNM Political Science Distinguished Professor Mala Htun dies". University of New Mexico. January 27, 2025. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
  6. ^ "Mala Htun Former Visiting Fellow". University of Notre Dame. 2004. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  7. ^ Htun, Mala; Weldon, S. Laurel (August 2012). "The civic origins of progressive policy change: Combating violence against women in global perspective, 1975–2005". American Political Science Review. 106 (3): 548–569. doi:10.1017/S0003055412000226. S2CID 15986250.
  8. ^ Htun, Mala (January 1, 2004). "From "racial democracy" to affirmative action: changing state policy on race in Brazil": 60–89. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ "Mala Htun Publications". Google Scholar. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  10. ^ a b c "Mala Htun". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. December 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  11. ^ Hipsher, Patricia (September 2004). "Review of Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies. By Mala Htun". Perspectives on Politics. 2 (3): 613–614. doi:10.1017/S1537592704660373. S2CID 145535183.
  12. ^ Jung, Courtney (June 8, 2017). "Review of Inclusion without Representation in Latin America: Gender Quotas and Ethnic Reservations. By Mala Htun". Perspectives on Politics. 15 (2): 588–589. doi:10.1017/S1537592717000640. S2CID 148804243.
  13. ^ a b "UNM's Mala Htun receives new Andrew Carnegie Fellowship". University of New Mexico Newsroom. University of New Mexico. April 22, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  14. ^ "S. Laurel Weldon wins Human Rights Book award for The Logics of Gender Justice". Simon Fraser University. July 26, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
  15. ^ "Human Rights Best Book Award Past Winners". International Studies Association. 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
  16. ^ "About Us". Advance at the University of New Mexico. 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  17. ^ "Diversity & Inclusion Hackathon". American Political Science Association. 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  18. ^ Corrales, Javier (August 10, 2018). "How Argentina Has Made Halting Progress on Abortion Rights". The New York Times. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  19. ^ Yi Dionne, Kim (August 19, 2019). "There's a gender gap in political science. Our series examines the problem — and looks at some solutions". Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  20. ^ Girard, Françoise (November 4, 2019). "Philanthropy for the Women's Movement, Not Just 'Empowerment'". Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
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