March 2015
Fillingim’s research examines the intersection of law and society by analyzing the diffusion of human rights norms in the United States. In current research examining the implementation of U.S. human rights legislation, she argues that solely studying human rights using a political lens obscures the fact that actors are social beings. Thus, she takes a different approach, studying the politics of human rights and their violation: the protracted discursive struggle to define, expound, and defend a particular definition of these phenomena. She explores how race shaped the nature of U.S. human rights policy towards Argentina (1976-1983) and El Salvador (1980-1992). Currently, she is expanding the scope of this project to include other countries in Latin America.
Fillingim will receive her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2015. She received her M.A. in sociology from UC Berkeley and her B.A. in Sociology from UC Davis.