Skip to main content
The Childhood, Law & Policy Network (CLPN)

Breadcrumb

  1. The Childhood, Law & Policy Network
  2. Members
  3. L
  4. Profiles

Dr Melinda Lemke

Melinda

Associate Professor, Educational Policy; University at Buffalo, State University of New York, United States

Email: malemke@buffalo.edu

Profile

I am a feminist scholar who examines the politics of education, and how social policies address structural violence to center the health, well-being, and human rights of young women and girls. The first area investigates policy actor knowledge, discourse, and decision-making, while the second considers how power and normative culture affect policy-making. Both areas rely upon interdisciplinarity and qualitative methods to examine causes, effects, and public sector responses to gender-based violence and forced displacement. Current projects include further development of feminist critical policy analysis tools and critique of intersecting social policies that delimit, dislocate, and engender structural trauma and disposability. My work is shaped by a prior career in U.S. secondary public education and ongoing sexual assault prevention advocacy.

Research

Publications

Lemke, M. & Rogers, K. (2022). A feminist critical heuristic for educational policy analysis: U.S. social emotional learning policy. Journal of Education Policy, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2022.2130995

Lemke, M., Nickerson, A. & Saboda, J. (2021). Global displacement and local contexts: A case study of U.S. urban educational policy and practice. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1884747

Shubin, S. & Lemke, M. (Eds.). (2020). Special Issue – Children displaced across borders: Charting new directions for research from interdisciplinary perspectives. Children’s Geographies, 18(5), 505-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2020.1781061

Lemke, M. (2019a). Educators as the “front line” of human trafficking prevention: An analysis of state-level educational policy. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 18(3), 284-304. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2017.1398337

Lemke, M. (2019b). The politics of ‘giving student victims a voice’: A feminist analysis of state trafficking policy implementation. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 14(1), 74-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/15546128.2018.1524805

Lemke, M. (2017). Trafficking and immigration policy: Intersections, inconsistencies, and implications for public education. Educational Policy, 31(6), 743-763. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904817719528 

Expertise

Critical and FemCrit Policy Analysis; Forced Displacement; Gender-based Violence; Neoliberal Educational Reform; Politics of Education; Qualitative Methodology; Youth Rights
Back to top