Margo Okazawa-Rey, is a Japanese-American professor emerita, educator, writer, and social justice activist, who is most known as a founding member of the Combahee River Collective, and for her transnational feminist advocacy.
Early life
Okazawa-Rey was born in Japan to an African-American father and a Japanese mother and cites her mixed race heritage made possible by American occupation of Japan as influencing her work on anti-militarism.
Margo Okazawa-Rey's specific areas of interest are militarism, armed conflict, and violence against women. In her research, she examined the connections between militarism, economic globalization, and impacts on local and migrant women in South Korea who live and work around US military bases. Okazawa-Rey also worked with women in the militarized and post-conflict areas of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria, where they are exploring the role of feminist research in activism, policy change, and women's empowerment. A related interest was connecting the effects of the military-industrial complex and prison industrial complex have on poor and working-class youth in American communities of color. She is, making connections—both theoretical and practical—between foreign policy and domestic policy.
Activism
As a founding member of the Combahee River Collective in the mid-1970s, it shaped her scholarship and activism and the framework of intersectionality has informed her activism on military violence against women, inter/intra-ethnic conflicts, and critical multicultural education in Boston, Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to her role as a member of the Combahee River Collective, she was also a founding member of the Afro-Asian Relations Council, the Institute for Multiracial Justice, and the East Asia-U.S. Women's Network Against Militarism, which became the International Women's Network Against Militarism. She has a long-standing relationship to international social justice work as she sits on the international board of NGO's: PeaceWomen Across the Globe, and Du Re Bang ; after having worked for three years as the Feminist Research Consultant at the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling in Ramallah, Palestine.
Publications
She is the author of numerous publications including:
“Making Connections: Building the East Asia-US Women's Network” Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 1998. In Women and War Reader, Jennifer Turpin and Lois A. Lorentsen. New York: New York University Press. pp.308-322.
“Children of GI Town: The invisible legacy of militarized prostitution” Margo Okazawa-Rey, 1997. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Spring: pp. 71-100.
Women's lives: multicultural perspectives. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2012. New York
Activist scholarship: antiracism, feminism, and social change. Julia Sudbury and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2009. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
"Militarism, Conflict, and Women's Activism in the Global Era: Challenges and Prospects for Women in Three West African Contexts" Amina Mama and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Feminist Review, July 2012. pp. 97-123
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Multicultural, Anti-Racist Education and Staff Development. Lee, E., Menkart, D., & Okazawa-Rey, M.. 2011.
Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2020. Oxford UK/New York: Oxford University Press.
