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Alexandra Budabin, Ph.D.

abudabin1@udayton.edu


Adjunct Professor

Free University of Bolzano

Year of PhD: 2012

Country: Italy

About Me:

Alexandra Cosima Budabin is Senior Researcher at the Human Rights Center of the University of Dayton and Research Fellow in the Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University of Bolzano (Italy). Her research on non-state actors in human rights, humanitarianism and development has appeared in World Development, Perspective on Politics, New Political Science, Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights, Humanity, and Third World Quarterly. Her book Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development with Lisa A. Richey is forthcoming with University of Minnesota Press.

Research Interests

NGOs

Human Rights

Nonprofits

Development

Political Communication

Contentious Politics

Non-state Actors

Global Governance

Social Movements

Transnational Advocacy

Humanitarianism

Social Media

Memorials

Monuments

Cultural Heritage

Countries of Interest

United States

Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Zaire)

Sudan

Italy

Denmark

My Research:

Dr. Alexandra Cosima Budabin (born 1978) studied art history, history, social thought and humanities at Harvard University and New York University. Her undergraduate thesis looked Holocaust commemoration in Berlin and her Master’s thesis explored refugees through the lens of global citizenship. She held the Leon Milman Memorial Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. Dr. Budabin received her doctorate in Politics from the New School for Social Research in 2012. She is a Senior Researcher at the Human Rights Center of the University of Dayton. Previously, Dr. Budabin was an Assegno di Ricerca in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bolzano (Italy) for the project “The Uses of Art in the Public Domain and the Politics of Heritage (Politage)” with PIs Roberto Farneti and Andrea di Michele (Free University of Bolzano). Her research on non-state actors in human rights, humanitarianism and development has appeared in Perspective on Politics, New Political Science, Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights, Humanity, and Third World Quarterly. Her first book Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development with Lisa A. Richey is forthcoming with University of Minnesota Press. Dr. Budabin’s current research looks at transnational advocacy on behalf of sexual violence in conflict; digital solidarity for refugees; and museum activism. Her personal website can be found here

Publications:

Journal Articles:

(2020) Sisterhood Partnerships for Conflict-related Sexual Violence, World Development

This article examines partnerships to support development causes related to women, specifically in the area of gender security. Drawing from feminist international political economy and feminist security studies, this research investigates the gendered ways in which configurations led by NGOs and businesses use cause-related marketing models to build solidarity among women to address conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Through the concept of sisterhood partnerships, this article theorizes the nature of the relationships formed between female consumers in the North and female recipients in the South. A discussion of three sisterhood partnerships that address CRSV in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will reveal the specific and gendered ways in which businesses fuse neoliberal agendas in development and feminism by linking female consumers to female beneficiaries through notions of solidarity and empowerment. We argue that while sisterhood partnerships may bring the benefits of raising awareness and funds for CRSV, the reliance on consumer strategies for Northern audiences and economic empowerment models for Southern beneficiaries valorize individual actions that fail to effect broader social change. At stake, the notion that feminist “sisterhoods” between north and south are being co-opted by corporations and marketed in de-politicized ways that fail to address systemic concerns related to gender security and women’s emancipation. We find that these examples of “sisterhood” partnerships exhibit superficial engagement with local and global politics, empower their consumers and beneficiaries in limited ways, and draw upon gendered tropes of advocacy and charitable engagement while failing to address the collective and protection needs of a vulnerable population. This article contributes to surfacing neoliberal trends in development and feminism that hold implications for gender security. Keywords Development; Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV); Activism; Advocacy; North-South divide; Consumption; Women; Congo Partnerships; Gender security

(2020) “Caffeinated Solutions as Neoliberal Politics: How Celebrities Create and Promote Partnerships for Peace and Development.”, Perspectives on Politics

How do celebrities exert power to influence elite and popular thinking and policy around peace and development? Drawing from research on neoliberalism, celebrities, and ethical consumption, I build an interpretive analysis of two case studies of Brand Aid initiatives to argue first, that celebrities mobilize financial and political capital to create partnerships across businesses, NGOs, and the government in ways that embody neoliberal politics by ushering in new private actors; and second, that celebrities reinforce these neoliberal politics by promoting these partnerships to popular and elite audiences. I discuss how this paper contributes to unmasking neoliberal trends by showing how celebrities are deepening their engagement in ways that hold implications for democratic politics.

(2018) Advocacy Narratives and Celebrity Engagement: The Case of Ben Affleck in Congo, Human Rights Quarterly

Global celebrities are increasingly important in human rights—promoting causes, raising awareness, and interacting with decision-makers—as communicators to mass and elite audiences. Deepening the literature on transnational advocacy and North-South relations, this article argues that celebrities shape human rights narratives by selecting issues and interacting with dominant framings. This hypothesis is tested through a discourse analysis of professional entertainer Ben Affleck's spoken and written texts along with organizational materials covering the establishment of the Eastern Congo Initiative. The study explains how celebrities' ability to contend with narratives reflects elite practices in human rights advocacy. (With Lisa A. Richey)

(2018) “The Elite Politics of Media Advocacy in Human Rights.”, New Political Science

With Joel R. Pruce. Advocacy NGOs based in the North adopt digital tools to bypass repressive regimes, raise awareness among global publics, sustain grassroots activists in the South, and engage in political action. Social media was expected to offer innovative platforms for mobilizing participants to take meaningful action on behalf of “distant others”. But the practices of some organizations signal that something else is at play. Rather than empower individuals, online and social media campaigns reify elite politics, using outsider strategies to support insider lobbying, thus weakening the ability of ordinary people to exercise their nascent desire to “do good”. Through communicative processes of mediatisation, organizations pay homage to the existence of a movement, but only afford thin forms of participation. Using the framework of media advocacy (Pruce and Budabin 2016) to explore two prominent organizations, Human Rights Watch and the Enough! Project, we argue that social media becomes a top-down platform that exacerbates the elite design of organizations, enabling them to assert legitimacy for political actions, while disingenuously marketing themselves as democratic with bottom-up credibility.

Books Written:

(2021) Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development, University of Minnesota Press

Can a celebrity be a “disrupter,” promoting strategic partnerships to bring new ideas and funding to revitalize the development field—or are celebrities just charismatic ambassadors for big business? Examining the role of the rich and famous in development and humanitarianism, Batman Saves the Congo argues that celebrities do both, and that understanding why and how yields insight into the realities of neoliberal development. In 2010, entertainer Ben Affleck, known for his superhero performance as Batman, launched the Eastern Congo Initiative to bring a new approach to the region’s development. This case study is central to Batman Saves the Congo. Affleck’s organization operates with special access, diversified funding, and significant support of elites within political, philanthropic, development, and humanitarian circuits. This sets it apart from other development organizations. With his convening power, Affleck has built partnerships with those inside and outside development, staking bipartisan political ground that is neither charity nor aid but “good business.” Such visible and recognizable celebrity humanitarians are occupying the public domain yet not engaging meaningfully with any public, argues Batman Saves the Congo. They are an unruly bunch of new players in development who amplify business solutions. As elite political participants, celebrities shape development practices through strategic partnerships that are both an innovative way to raise awareness and funding for neglected causes and a troubling trend of unaccountable elite leadership in North–South relations. Batman Saves the Congo helps illuminate the power of celebritized business solutions and the development contexts they create.

Book Chapters:

(2019) “When Advocacy Securitizes: New Actors and Audiences in the Securitization of Sexualized Violence in Conflict.”, Routledge

This chapter (written with Natalie F. Hudson) concerns the ways in which advocacy efforts, both in official and unofficial circles, broaden how we think about securitization, especially in terms of understanding who counts as securitizing actors and audiences. Despite the passing of UN Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 by the UN Security Council, the scourge of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) was neglected in major episodes of violence and conflict in the early 2000s. In light of the weak consideration given to SCR 1325 within official circles, it became evident that greater political will was needed to convince state-based security actors of this real and urgent threat. We argue that this political will was generated by the entry of new actors and audiences into the field of security. Looking at the case of Western advocacy around the SGBV situation in Congo, we show how non-state actors–activists, advocacy organizations, and celebrities– adopted security discourses as a way of putting pressure on official mainstream security actors. This included the promulgation of a simplifying narrative of women’s protection needs in armed conflict, strategic rape as a weapon of war that gained traction with mass audiences. Our data is drawn from media coverage, films, websites, campaign materials, reports, and semi-structured interviews with over 30 humanitarian practitioners, human rights advocates, and representatives of inter-governmental organizations in New York, London, Washington, DC, and Boston from 2015-2017. Adopting a security lens, we argue that rather than being solely the purview of state-centric actors, security discourses can be effectively adopted by new actors and audiences in ways that count as securitizing moves.