Margo Okazawa-Rey

Margo Okazawa-Rey (November 26, 1949, Japan) is a Black and 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.

Through her research and activism, she explores and shares the interconnections between militarism and globalization of the economy, problems within communities of color in the United States and globally, and fights for the security of women worldwide.

Early life Okazawa-Rey was born in Kobe, 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. At the age of ten, she moved to the United States.

In 1973, Okazawa-Rey received a B.A. from Capital University Department of Sociology. Followed by in 1974 when she received a M.S.S. from Boston University School of Social Work.

Career

Positions Okazawa-Rey is professor emerita, San Francisco State University. She also was core faculty in the Doctoral Program of the School of Human and Organization Development at the Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore,

Okazawa-Rey held the Jane Watson Irwin Chair at Hamilton College from 1999 to 2001, then returned in 2014 to 2016 as the Elihu Root Chair in Women's Studies. Along with this, she was a visiting professor teaching social policy and U.S. Women of Color. During this time at Mills College, she proposed the Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership in honor of the former congresswoman and alumni Barbara Lee. Furthermore, she co-convened "Women Redefining Security" conferences in Okinawa, Washington, D.C, and Seoul, Korea.

In 1978, Okazawa-Rey co-authored “A Black Feminist Statement” with the collective.

In 1990, she joined the Advisory board for the Shanti Project in San Francisco along with the board of directors for the Afro-Asian Relations Council of Washington.

In 1994, Okazawa-Rey received a Fulbright Program in South Korea, citing an interest in interminority racism between Korean and African Americans. During her time in South Korea, she noted the U.S. military presence along with the generational impact of the Japanese colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

She has a long-standing relationship to international social justice work as she sits on the international board of NGOs: PeaceWomen Across the Globe (based in Bern, Switzerland), Du Re Bang (My Sister's Place, Uijongbu, South Korea), and AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development) after having worked for three years as the Feminist Research Consultant at the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling in Ramallah, Palestine.

Personal life Okazawa-Rey was one of the 100+ Black scholars and academics who opined their support for Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. “No Freedom without Connections: Envisioning Sustainable Feminist Solidarities.” (2018) in Feminist Freedom Warriors: Genealogies, Justice, Politics, and Hope, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Linda Carty (eds.). New York: Haymarket Press. Between a Rock and Hard Place: Southeast Asian Women Confront Extractivism, Militarism, and Religious Fundamentalisms (2018). Washington DC: Just Associates. “Liberal Arts Colleges Partnering with Highlander Research and Education Center: Intergenerational Learning for Student Campus Activism and Personal Transformation,” Feminist Formations Special Issue on Feminist Social Justice Pedagogy (2018). Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives (7th Edition). Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2020. Oxford UK/New York: Oxford University Press. “Nation-izing” Coalition and Solidarity Politics for US Anti-militarist Feminists, Social Justice (2020).

Awards and nominations Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 1994. Jane Watson Irwin Distinguished Chair in Women's Studies at Hamilton College, from 1999 to 2001. Received Lasting Legacy Award at the Words of Fire Conference held April 29th and 30th at Spelman College in 2017