Since joining Columbia Law School's faculty in 2001 Professor Franke's research and teaching have increasingly focused on gender and racial equality and well as the regulation of sexuality in domestic, transnational and international contexts. In Sexual Tensions of Post Empire Professor Franke examined two contemporary cites - Cairo and Zimbabwe - in which state efforts to eradicate the traces of empire and to resurrect an authentic post-colonial nation have produced sexual subjects that serve as a kind of existential residue and remainder of a demonized colonial past and absence. Professor Franke was both a member of the Board of Directors, including serving as Chair of the Board, of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission from 1997 to 2003.