Kristy E. Kelly

Research Interests: Globalization/development/post-socialist transformation in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, gender and feminism studies, sociology of education, and politics of knowledge.

Kristy Kelly (University of Wisconsin – Madison, PhD 2010) specializes in sociology of gender and comparative/international education. She uses gender and education as critical lenses to examine social change in Southeast Asia.

She is currently working on a book manuscript, titled Whatever Happened to Comrade? The Politics of Gender Mainstreaming, Training and Development. Her book examines how gender equality policies move through intersecting levels of global-local social scale, and the role training plays in transforming human rights discourses and practices to fit different needs and interests in Vietnam. Dr. Kelly’s dissertation on the same topic was awarded the 2010 Gail P. Kelly Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Comparative Education by the Comparative and International Education Society.

Dr. Kelly has written on higher education, HIV/AIDS, human rights, women and leadership, and the politics of gender, class and citizenship in post-socialist Vietnam. Her research and teaching interests include: globalization and transnationalism, gender and development, the politics of knowledge, post-socialist transformation, social change policy, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Kelly has extensive experience working for the United Nations and development organizations in Vietnam, Hong Kong and the United States. She continues to consult on gender and development issues with multilateral and non-government organizations in Asia.