Susanna Wing Earns Franklin Grant

Associate Professor of Political Science Susanna Wing has received a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society. The Franklin Program is designed to support faculty travel to libraries and archives for research, fieldwork, or laboratory research. Wing’s grant will support her research in Benin, where she will explore women in the court systems. 

“I was thrilled to receive this external recognition and support for my work,” said Wing, who has published extensively on Mali and whose other research interests include security and the rule of law in Africa. 

During her sabbatical next year, this $6,000 grant will help support her travel to Benin for her next project "Women and Benin's Courts of First Instance: Access to Justice."  While in the West African nation, Wing plans to visit courts to examine civil status and family law decisions. She also plans to interview many of the actors in the Beninese justice system—from the lawyers, judges, and human rights activists to the women who go to the courts and use them for divorce, alimony, custody, and other family law matters. 

“The goal of my project is to better understand women's access to justice in Benin,” said Wing. “A great deal of money has been allocated by state and non-state actors to improve access to justice. I am interested in how women use courts and what their experiences have been with the formal judicial system. … Conflicts within families are often dealt with in informal settings or more traditional authority structures, rather than in formal courts. It is understood that women face a number of hurdles when seeking justice and, despite this, women use the Courts of First Instance (lower courts) at the same rate or more frequently than do men. I will be exploring the challenges women have faced in the process and what we can learn about women's agency and empowerment in Benin.”  

Wing will be aided in this work by political science and religion major Sophia Kaplan ‘23, her research assistant, who will remain on campus while Wing is abroad. 

“She will be helping me with research on women and law in Africa more broadly,” said Wing. “I will be depending on her to keep me up to date on the available literature and also relying on her fine editing skills as the project takes form.”

Wing departs for Benin in September and plans to present her work at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in November.