Dr Lena Holzer
Staff details

Lena is a Lecturer in Law with a focus on the role of international law in structuring gender relations and other relations of inequality. She employs interdisciplinary research methods drawing on queer-feminist theories and other counter-hegemonic legal approaches.
Lena received her PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Prior to joining Goldsmiths, she taught at the Graduate Institute, the Utrecht University and the Danube University of Krems. Lena was also a Visiting Researcher at King’s College London in 2020-2021 and has experience in working for several human rights NGOs
Publications and research outputs
Article
Holzer, Lena. 2022. Legal gender recognition in times of change at the European Court of Human Rights. ERA Forum, 23(2), pp. 165-182. ISSN 1612-3093
Beury, Manon and Holzer, Lena. 2022. Orientations as a 3-Dimensional Tool for Practising Positionality in International Law. LAW Working Paper, 2022(4), ISSN 1725-6739
Schramm, Bérénice K.; Santos de Carvalho, Juliana; Holzer, Lena and Beury, Manon. 2022. Doing Queer in the Everyday of Academia: Reflections on Queering a Conference in International Law. AJIL Unbound, 116, pp. 16-21. ISSN 2398-7723
Holzer, Lena. 2020. What Does it Mean to be a Woman in Sports? An Analysis of the Jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Human Rights Law Review, 20(3), pp. 387-411. ISSN 1461-7781
Holzer, Lena. 2020. Smashing the Binary? A new era of legal gender registration in the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10. International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law, 1(1), pp. 98-133. ISSN 2056-3914
Holzer, Lena. 2019. Sexually Dimorphic Bodies: A Production of Birth Certificates. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 45(1), pp. 91-110. ISSN 1320-0968
Book Section
Holzer, Lena. 2021. La Définition Juridique de l’Identité de Genre En Europe. In: Bérénice K. Schramm, ed. Queer(s) et Droit International. Études Réseau Olympe. Paris: Société de législation comparée, pp. 287-332. ISBN 9782365171090
Further profile content
Featured publications
2022:
Legal Gender Recognition at the ECtHR in Times of Change
ERA Forum
2022:
Queer Conference-Convening in International Law
AJIL Unbound
2022:
What Does It Mean to Be A Woman in Sports? An Analysis of the Jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Human Rights Law Review
2021:
La Définition Juridique de l’Identité de Genre En Europe
Queer(s) et Droit International. Études Réseau Olympe
2020:
Smashing the Binary? A New Era of Legal Gender Registration in the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10
International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law
Grants and awards
2022:
SNIS Award
SNIS Award for the best PhD thesis written in international studies in Switzerland.
2021:
Doc.Mobility Fellowship
Doc.Mobility Fellowship awarded from the Swiss National Science Foundation for a one-year research visit at King’s College London
2015:
Five-month Fellowship
Five-month Fellowship awarded for having achieved excellent grades in the European Master's Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation