Girls' Positionalities at the Intersection of Identity and Violence

The edited volume explores the unique positionality of girls as they experience gender-based violence. While girl children are often placed under the umbrella of womanhood, their location at the intersection of femalehood and childhood places them in a unique position with regards to various forms of exploitation and violence. Feminist theories, including feminist legal theory, provide pertinent avenues to explore girls’ positionalities, yet girl children should also be contextualized in relation to their current lived experiences. This book firstly explores the cultural and visual portrayal of girlhood and its relationship with gender-based violence, and secondly provides case studies of specific violations of human rights encompassing sexual violence and exploitation. It considers legal, social and economic avenues to support girls in reclaiming their identity, dignity and bodily integrity.

Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati, Ph.D. in Law, University of Oxford, Master of Laws (LL.M.), King’s College London, Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Civil Law (J.D. and B.C.L.), McGill University, is Associate Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, and a Lawyer (Barrister and Solicitor) with the Law Society of Upper Canada. She is the author of The Status of the Girl Child under International Law: A Semioethic Analysis (Cambridge University Press 2025) and Feminicides of Girl Children in the Family Context: An International Human Rights Law Approach (Brill 2018), and editor of Legal Semiotics for Teaching International Law: Students Making Meaning (Springer 2026). Her research areas are legal semiotics, legal semioethics, international law, human rights, child law and feminist legal theory. She was awarded the Global Impact Grant for her novel theory in international legal semiotics. She is Associate Editor of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, editorial board member of the Southern Semiotic Review, and Senior Fellow with the UK Higher Education Academy. Email: clara.chapdelaine-feliciati@mail.mcgill.ca; ORCID: 0000-0002-6654-1630