Cher Weixia Chen is an Associate Professor in the School of Integrative Studies, the founder of the Human Rights and Global Justice Initiative, a Senior Scholar of the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, and a faculty fellow of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth, George Mason University (GMU).
She co-developed the undergraduate Social Justice and Human Rights concentration, Social Justice and Human Rights minor, and MAIS Social Justice and Human Rights concentration. She coordinates and teaches courses in International Studies, Legal Studies, and Social Justice and Human Rights concentrations. Dr. Chen is the recipient of the 2021 GMU Oscar Mentoring Excellence Award.
Professor Chen's scholarship revolves around issues related to human rights, with a particular focus on marginalized groups such as women and indigenous communities. Her expertise also extends to international and comparative legal studies. Among her notable publications are Compliance and Compromise: The Jurisprudence of Gender Pay Equity (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff, 2011) and International Human Rights: A Survey (Cambridge University Press, 2022, co-authored with Alison Dundes Renteln). Additionally, she serves as co-editor for the forthcoming Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Global Governance (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024, with O’Donoghue, Aoife, Ruth Houghton, David Ngira & Yassin Brunger).