Meghana V. Nayak

Other Writing

Articles and Chapters

  • 2025. “Our Caste Problem/Coda with Shalini Basu and Aryaa Moudgal.” In Routledge Handbook on Feminist International Relations, eds. Catherine Goetze and Khush Sigh Rathore. (contact me for pdf)
  • 2023. “Warning Signs Your Colonizer is Gaslighting You.” In Writing Saved Me: When the International Gets Personal, eds. Cristina Masters, et. al. (contact me for pdf)
  • 2020. “Politics of Disinheritance.” Women’s Studies Quarterly. 48 (1&2): 236-253. (contact me for pdf)
  • 2019. “Migration and Gendered Insecurities.” In Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security, eds. Caron Gentry, Laura Shepherd, Laura Sjoberg. (contact me for pdf)
  • 2018. “The U.S. Family Separation Crisis and the Gendered Violence of Deterrence.” e-international relations.
  • 2018. “The Violence of Immigration Deterrence.” Torn Apart/Separados.

Who is Worthy of Protection? Gender-Based Asylum and US Immigration Politics (2015)

Gender-based asylum is a strategy to allow asylum seekers who have experienced gender persecution to find safe haven in the United States. But gender is not one of the categories (such as race) of persecution in refugee law, asylum advocates and the U.S. government have created “frames” about what gender violence is, what causes it, and who counts as a victim, giving some asylum seekers an opportunity to flee gender violence. But asylum frames leave out or distort the stories and experiences of multiple asylum seekers who do not “fit” the frames. This book explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization/abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.

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“With Who is Worthy of Protection? Meghana Nayak provides a powerful and much needed critical examination of US immigration politics via the problematic handling of gender-based asylum cases. It is a must-read for scholars, activists, and practitioners working on gender-based violence, sexuality rights, immigration rights, or human rights more broadly.” —Celeste Montoya, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
 
“A thoughtful and well-researched analysis of the conditional rights of migrant women that shows how asylum depends on framing and constructions of gender. The book notably pushes feminist IR in a more grounded, constructive direction.” —Alison Brysk, Mellichamp Professor of Global Governance, University of California, Santa Barbara

Decentering International Relations
(Co-authored with Eric Selbin, 2010)

Is it possible to talk about global politics and international relations without always, inevitably focusing on the U.S.? Through  conversations with scholars, activists, and students, the authors invite the reader to participate in an accessible yet provocative experiment to decenter the Global North/West. Particular attention is paid to human rights, globalization, peace and security, and indigeneity. 

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“This is a refreshingly unusual book on International Relations. It asks all the right questions, not only about world politics but about the ways they are seen and theorised.” —Stephen Chan, author of The of Certainty
 
“The most innovative and urgent book about international relations theory and practice I’ve read in decades.” —Cynthia Weber, author of Faking It and Queer International Relations

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