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Courts, Rights, and Representation

Kat Reichert, CLA Public Information Office
November 17, 2025
cla-pio@alaska.edu

Carol Gray Shares Legal Insight on the Global Stage at IPSA 2025

When Assistant Professor of Political Science Carol Gray traveled to Seoul this summer for the International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress, she stepped into one of the largest global gatherings of political scientists: nearly 4,000 scholars representing every region of the world. With support from the Arctic and Northern Studies Program, which awarded her travel funding, Gray assumed multiple leadership roles at the conference, helping to bring Alaska’s legal and human rights conversations to a worldwide stage.

Over the course of the conference, Gray chaired two panels, served as a discussant for another, and presented original research in a fourth. Her paper, “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Alaska: A Legal Crisis Not Yet Solved,” was part of the panel Women, Power, and Resistance: Navigating Gendered Challenges in Politics and Society. The session examined the political, cultural, and economic pressures women face globally, along with the strategies and narratives that sustain their resistance. Gray’s contribution brought Alaska’s unsolved legal crisis into a comparative international framework, connecting the experiences of Indigenous women in the state to broader conversations about gendered violence, power, and accountability.

Beyond presenting her research, Gray also took on roles that shaped the discourse of the conference itself. As discussant for Relationships between Democracy and Courts, she engaged with papers exploring how judicial institutions interact with democratic systems, sometimes strengthening those systems, sometimes challenging them. In her position as chair of Conceptions of Democracy in Constitutional Adjudication, she facilitated discussion on how constitutional courts interpret, invoke, and operationalize the very idea of democracy. These papers spanned methodological approaches and geographic regions, expanding ongoing scholarship on constitutional reasoning beyond its predominantly European focus.

Gray also co-chaired Human Rights in Digital Space: Resisting Autocratization in Polarized Societies, a panel addressing the fast-shifting legal and political terrain created by digital technologies. Panelists explored how online surveillance, algorithmic bias, censorship, harassment, and digital exclusion affect fundamental rights—and how legal frameworks and civil society movements are responding. The session underscored the double-edged nature of digital space: its capacity to expand speech and participation at scale, and its potential to produce new forms of harm.

For Gray, the setting in Seoul added an unforgettable layer of meaning. The conference opened with remarks from the president of South Korea, a former human rights lawyer whose public life has been shaped by the country’s pro-democracy movements. The nation’s recent political history served as a living backdrop to many of the conference themes. The prior administration had illegally declared martial law, prompting sustained mass demonstrations demanding democratic restoration. Among the figures who acted during that period was a legislator—now head of parliament—who famously scaled a wall to reclaim the parliament building. He later spoke at the conference's closing ceremony.

“That man was a speaker at our closing ceremony! It was amazing and so inspiring, especially for me as an American, who is so concerned about our democracy right now,” Gray said.

Her time in Seoul carried both academic and personal resonance. The IPSA World Congress provided a forum to bring Alaska-based legal scholarship into global exchanges about constitutional reasoning, human rights, and the health of democratic institutions. It also underscored how deeply connected these struggles are across continents, across political systems, across communities working toward justice in very different circumstances.

With support from the Arctic and Northern Studies Program, Gray’s participation highlighted the ongoing research, teaching, and public engagement in the College of Liberal Arts, work grounded in Alaska’s unique context and linked to some of the most urgent questions facing democracies today.

The 51�������� Department of Political Science offers a Bachelor of Arts degree that introduces students to public law, political institutions, international relations, and political theory. Coursework emphasizes analytical reasoning, research, and the study of how political systems function in Alaska, the United States, and around the world. Students gain tools that prepare them for careers in government, law, public service, advocacy, and graduate study.

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program (WGSS), offered as an interdisciplinary minor, encourages students to explore how gender and sexuality shape culture, social structures, and lived experience. Through courses that draw from the humanities and social sciences, students examine power, identities, and the ways communities respond to social challenges. Together, these programs support thoughtful inquiry and help students engage deeply with political, social, and legal questions.