Faculty Civic Excellence Award - Chen

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 with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, and a faculty fellow of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth, George Mason University. Chen co-developed the undergraduate social justice and human rights concentration, social justice and human rights minor, and the MAIS social justice and human rights concentration. She coordinates and teaches courses in concentrations for international studies, legal studies, and social justice and human rights.  

Chen is the recipient of George Mason's Oscar Mentoring Excellence Award (2021), Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice (2023-2024), and the 2024 Human Rights in Higher Education Award by University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education. 

She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books, including International Human Rights: A Survey (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Activism, Burnout, and Community in Higher Education: Narratives of College Student Activists (Routledge, 2024), Prohibiting Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Cross-Cultural Analysis (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025), and Disciplinary Frontiers of Human Rights in Higher Education (Cambridge University Press, 2025).  

Her scholarship focuses on the issues of human rights (particularly the rights of marginalized groups such as women’s rights and indigenous rights) and law and policy.