IT (Inga) Winkler

Dr. Inga Winkler’s research agenda sits at the intersection of public health, human rights and gender justice. Issues that are considered taboo, in particular sanitation and menstruation, have piqued her interest, but her research also spans the domains of water, food and nutrition. Her research emphasizes the ‘socio’ in socio-legal research. She is keenly interested in developing a more in-depth understanding of inequalities and stigma. The lens of human rights informs her study of responses to marginalization and discrimination including processes of mobilization, collective action, and social movement building as well as their interaction with policy-making and the institutional protection of human rights.

Her research appears in journals in the fields of law, human rights, gender studies, and public health, and her books include the first comprehensive monograph on the human right to water, the Handbook on Critical Menstruation Studies, and an edited volume on the Sustainable Development Goals. Her work has been supported through grants of the European Commission, foundations and UN agencies. Inga serves on editorial boards of Women’s Reproductive Health and PLOS Water and is the co-chair of a standing Seminar on Menstruation & Society at Columbia University.

Prior to joining Wageningen, Inga was on the faculty at the Central European University in Vienna and at Columbia University in New York City. She was also a visiting scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU, at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and at UC Berkeley. In her previous role, she gained extensive policy experience serving as the Legal Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. This background continues to influence her work enabling her to link research, advocacy and policy-influencing to strengthen the societal impact of her work. Inga holds a German law degree and a doctorate in international human rights law (summa cum laude).