Chris Bobel

Chris Bobel is a Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Liberal Arts. Her work bridges critical menstruation studies, feminist activism, and social movement theory.

• PhD in Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• MA and BA in Speech Communication, University of Maine and Miami University

Her research interrogates the politics of stigmatized bodily experiences, focusing on menstruation as a lens for understanding power, resistance, and social change. She has pioneered critical menstruation studies as an interdisciplinary field and explores activism emerging from trauma and grief.

Recent publications analyze menstrual tracking apps, global health policies, and the paradoxes of menstrual activism. She co-edited the landmark Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (2020) and authored award-winning works on menstrual health in the Global South.

• 2020 ASA Sociology of Development Outstanding Book Award

Chris serves on editorial boards for Signs and Women’s Reproductive Health, shaping discourse on menstrual equity and reproductive justice. Her scholarship weaves ethnographic methods with critical feminist analysis to challenge oppressive norms.