Carrie Booth Walling

Carrie Booth Walling is a Professor of Political Science and Faculty Director of the  Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Service. Walling teaches courses in international politics and human rights. Walling is a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and leads its Michigan Chapter. Walling is Founder and Director of the Albion Human Rights Lab, teaches for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and helps lead the Holocaust Studies Service-Learning Project where students do cemetery restoration work while learning about the Holocaust in Poland. Walling holds a Ph.D. in Political Science with a minor in Human Rights from the University of Minnesota (2008). She also holds a BA in International Relations from James Madison College, Michigan State University and master’s degrees in Strategic Studies and Political Science from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of Minnesota, respectively.

Research & Scholarship

Walling’s research has focused on two areas: 1) responses to and impacts of mass atrocity crimes and 2) human rights practice, including the development of human rights policy and the local implementation of global human rights norms and the reverse – how local practices shape global norms.

Walling is the author of Human Rights and Dignity for All: Demanding Dignity in the United States and Around the World. The book combines research on rights and justice abroad with rights and justice claims made in the United States. Covering rights and justice issues from the Flint Water Crisis and mass incarceration in the U.S. to the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China and the ISIS genocide against Yazidi women, Walling explains the causes of violations and the advocacy practices that lead to human rights change. The book shows how ordinary people use human rights claims to challenge harmful and exclusionary practices of powerful governments and institutions. A toolkit at the end equips its readers to make changes in their own communities.

Walling also examines how power, interests and norms shape international decision-making. Her article, “The United Nations Security Council and Human Rights,” was published in a special edition of Global Governance, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. Walling’s research is situated at the intersection of human rights, human security, and international law. Walling’s central focus is international responses to mass atrocity crimes including military humanitarian intervention, transitional justice, human rights trials and how human rights norms are changing the meaning of international security and state sovereignty. Walling is author of All Necessary Measures: The United Nations and Humanitarian Intervention, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press 2013). To learn more about her book and how the stories we tell each other about violence and civil war affect UN Security Council decision-making, listen to this podcast from the genocide prevention series as part of the New Book Network.

Walling’s research has been published in the Journal of Peace Research, Global Governance, Human Rights Quarterly, PS: Political Science & Politics, Journal of Human Rights and International Journal of Human Rights, among others. 

Teaching & Student Engagement

Walling is passionate about teaching political science and human rights. She was awarded the Student’s Choice Teaching Award by the Albion College Student Senate for excellence in teaching and advising in 2014. Walling is founder and director of the Albion College Human Rights Lab – an interdisciplinary, experiential learning hub to build the capacity of student and community leaders to address local rights and justice issues. The goal of the Lab is to prepare the next generation of human rights professionals. Lab projects include the Social Justice and Advocacy Toolkit and the Albion Advocates blog.

Working collaboratively with Susan Waltz (University of Michigan), Walling has launched a website on human rights advocacy and the history of international human rights standards – which they describe as is a free, online text book.

The hallmarks of Walling’s teaching include cultivating dynamic classrooms and empowered students, student-centered experiential learning, promoting public and policy engagement, and facilitating student writing and research.

Learn more about Walling’s teaching on human rights in this feature article, “A Matter of Conscience“.

Prior to joining the faculty at Albion in 2011, Walling was a postdoctoral fellow with the Michigan Society of Fellows at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan (2008-2011). Walling’s previous professional experience includes program and development work for Women for Women International – a non-governmental organization serving women affected by war and conflict.