Sally Engle Merry

Professor of Anthropology, Institute for Law and Society
Faculty Co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice

Sally Merry

Sally Engle Merry, our beloved colleague who passed away in September 2020, was Silver Professor and Professor of Anthropology at New York University. She was also Faculty Co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law. She taught courses on human rights, gender, and legal anthropology, and co-taught the IILJ Colloquium on Infrastructure, Rights and Regulation. She was one of the Principal Investigators in the IILJ project on Indicators, and in the new project on Infrastructure as Regulation.

Her books include The Seductions of Quantification (University of Chicago Press, 2016), The Quiet Power of Indicators (co-edited with Kevin Davis and Benedict Kingsbury, Cambridge, 2015), Governance by Indicators (co-edited with Kevin Davis, Angelina Fisher, and Benedict Kingsbury, Oxford, 2012), Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective (Blackwells, 2009), The Practice of Human Rights (co-edited with Mark Goodale, Cambridge, 2007), and Colonizing Hawai‘i (Princeton, 2000).

Prof. Merry received the Hurst Prize for Colonizing Hawai‘i in 2002, the Kalven Prize for scholarly contributions to sociolegal scholarship in 2007, and the J.I. Staley Prize for Human Rights and Gender Violence in 2010. In 2013 she received an honorary degree from McGill School of Law and was the focus of an Author Colloquium at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF) at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. In 2019, she was awarded the Franz Boas prize, the highest accolade bestowed by the American Anthropological Association.

Prof. Merry was deeply involved in research on human rights, gender violence, colonialism, the hazards of excessive quantification of public policies, and the overlap between anthropology and law. She was a past president of the Law and Society Association, the American Ethnological Society and the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology.

 

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Philip
Alston
Professor
Lauren
Benton
Professor
Benedict
Kingsbury
Faculty Director
Katrina
Wyman
Professor
Joseph
Weiler
Professor
Jeremy
Waldron
Professor
Frank
Upham
Professor
Richard
Stewart
Professor
Linda
Silberman
Professor
Margaret
Satterthwaite
Professor
David
Golove
Professor
Franco
Ferrari
Professor
Eleanor
Fox
Professor
Gráinne
de Búrca
Professor
Jerome
Cohen
Professor
José
Alvarez
Professor
Kevin
Davis
Professor
Mattias
Kumm
Professor
Mitchell
Kane
Professor
Robert
Howse
Professor
Ryan
Goodman
Professor
Stephen
Holmes
Professor
Theodor
Meron
Professor
Eyal
Benvenisti
Professor
Simon
Chesterman
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Megan
Donaldson
Fellow
Martti
Koskenniemi
Professor
Joanna
Langille
Fellow
Karin
Loevy
Visiting Scholar
David
Malone
Senior Fellow
Sally
Merry
Professor
Edefe
Ojomo
Professor
Chelsea
Anelli
IILJ Scholar
Mikaela
Ediger
IILJ Scholar
Nathaniel
Eisen
IILJ Scholar
Tess
Graham
IILJ Scholar
Claire
Schupmann
IILJ Scholar
Caroline
Zielinski
IILJ Scholar
Suraiya-Asmau
Zubair Banu
IILJ Scholar
Angelina
Fisher
Program Director
Rachel
Jones
Administrator
Paul
Mertenskötter
Institute Fellow
Thomas
Streinz
Institute Fellow
Benjamin
Straumann
Professor
Senior Fellow
Isabelle
Glimcher
IILJ Scholar
Gabriele
Wadlig
JSD student
Helen
Hershkoff
Professor
Alissa
Clarke
IILJ Scholar
Deborah Kay
Burand
Professor
Liam
Murphy
Professor
Brian
King
Adjunct Professor
Michele
Krech
JSD Candidate
Jackson
Gandour
IILJ Scholar
Robert
Barton
IILJ Scholar
Tatiana
August-Schmidt
IILJ Scholar
Harlan G.
Cohen
Senior Fellow
Tleuzhan
Zhunussova
Global Fellow
Kathryn
Gundersen
IILJ Scholar
Lucas
Cuatrecasas
IILJ Scholar
Sasha
Boutilier
IILJ Scholar
Camilla
Akbari
IILJ Scholar
Madhu
Narasimhan
IILJ Scholar
Elena
Hodges
IILJ Scholar
Beenish
Riaz
IILJ Scholar
Francesca
Iurlaro
Global Fellow
Henok Birhanu
Asmelash
Global Fellow
Veronica
Fikfak
Global Fellow
Carlos Andrés
Baquero-Díaz
JSD student
Katrina
Geddes
JSD student
Ngozi
Nwanta
JSD student
Mengjing
Kong
JSD Candidate
Eytan
Tepper
Global Fellow
Doreen
Lustig
Professor
Guy
Fiti Sinclair
Professor
Carmen
Lyon
IILJ Scholar
Navya
Dasari
IILJ Scholar
Michael
Leonetti
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Stewart
IILJ Scholar
Kevin
Kuate Fodouop
IILJ Scholar
Ciara
Taylor
IILJ Scholar
Kathleen
Morris
IILJ Scholar
Alison
Strongwater
IILJ Scholar
Galia
Popov
IILJ Scholar
Rochelle
Dreyfuss
Professor
César
Rodríguez-Garavito
Professor
Pedro
Martinez-Fraga
Adjunct Professor
Dimitri
Van Den Meerssche
Fellow
Alejandro
Rodiles
Professor
Nahuel
Maisley
Professor
Tara
Nair
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Marandett
IILJ Scholar
Shannon
Pennoyer
IILJ Scholar
Ian
Allen
IILJ Scholar
Lyla
Sax
IILJ Scholar
Jacko
Walz
IILJ Scholar
Shirin
Asgari
IILJ Scholar
Talya
Nevins
IILJ Scholar
Noa
Gur-Arie
IILJ Scholar
Josh
Zakharov
IILJ Scholar
Bhavini Sai
Kakani
IILJ Scholar
Israa
Saber
IILJ Scholar
Eirik
Bjorge
Global Fellow
Fernando
Lusa Bordin
Global Fellow
Sebastián
Mantilla Blanco
Global Fellow
Yirong
Sun
Fellow
Sasha
Aristotle
IILJ Scholar
Bassel
El-Rewini
IILJ Scholar
Sam
Karnes
IILJ Scholar
Anagha
Komaragiri
IILJ Scholar
Aidan
McGirr
IILJ Scholar
Isabel
Paolini
IILJ Scholar
Sharonya
Vadakattu
IILJ Scholar
Pierson
Broadwater
IILJ Scholar
Noah
Rosenblum
Assistant Professor
Junius
Williams
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Steinig
IILJ Scholar
Ryen
Amora Diaz
IILJ Scholar