Hom, Sharon K. 1951- (Sharon Kang Hom)

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Hom, Sharon K. 1951- (Sharon Kang Hom)

PERSONAL:

Born May 20, 1951. Education: New York University, J.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Human Rights in China Head Office, 350 5th Ave., Ste. 3311, New York, NY 10118; City University of New York School of Law, 65-21 Main St., Flushing, NY 11367. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Attorney. Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY, professor emerita; Human Rights in China, New York, NY, executive director.

WRITINGS:

(With Amy Hilsman Kastely and Deborah Waire Post) Contracting Law, Carolina Academic Press (Durham, NC), 1996, 4th edition, 2006.

(Editor) Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry, Garland (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Stacy Mosher) Challenging China: Struggle and Hope in an Era of Change, New Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to Fa lu jiao xue xin fang fa gai lue: meiguo fa lu jiao xue fang fa zai zhongguo di chang shi: zhong ying wen dui zhao (title means "American Legal Education Methodology in China"), by Tan Jingchang, Zhongguo zhan wang chu ban she/Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing (Beijing, China), 1990.

SIDELIGHTS:

Human rights activist and lawyer Sharon K. Hom is a former law professor who went on to head the organization Human Rights in China, which has offices in New York City, Hong Kong, and Brussels, Belgium. Deeply concerned about human rights in China, she has testified before the U.S. Congress, as well as the European Parliament. Hom is the editor of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry, and the coeditor of Challenging China: Struggle and Hope in an Era of Change. The former title is a collection of articles written by Chinese women from all walks of life, including lawyers, academics, journalists, poets, film scholars, and choreographers. What they have in common is that they have all left their homes in China to travel, study, or settle in other countries, thus giving them a unique perspective on how the Chinese experience compares to those of other lands.

Challenging China, which Hom edited with journalist Stacy Mosher, takes a look at all the social, political, and legislative problems that still thrive beneath China's remarkable economic success since the 1980s. Despite a slow embrace of principles of capitalism, China, the editors show, is still a stringently communist country. There are many cases of political corruption, huge flaws in the judicial system, and gross misuse of natural resources. Hom, who promotes the promise of Internet technology in introducing concepts of freedom and reform to China's citizens, sees growing promise in the growth of dissident movements seeking political change and democracy.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Amerasia Journal, winter, 1999, Josephine Foo, review of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 1999, review of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora, p. 39.

ONLINE

Carnegie Endowment Web site,http://www.carnegieendowment.org/ (April 15, 2008), brief author profile.