Responses to Wartime Sexual Violence: Victimization, Agency and Women’s Mobilization
In my article-based dissertation, I examine domestic and international responses to wartime sexual violence. First, I am interested in women’s political mobilization in societies experiencing and emerging from civil war. Moving beyond the dominant representations of war-related trauma, I seek to shed light on the intersection of victimization and agency: to what extent, how and why do women mobilize collectively in response to and around wartime (sexual) violence? What are the results of this mobilization?
My second area of interest lies in how international actors respond to wartime sexual violence, including in the context of the global Women, Peace and Security framework, anchored in United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 and its follow-ups. How do international actors represent and respond to women in conflict situations, in particular in conflicts where sexual violence is widespread? To what extent do international actors balance or fail to balance women’s victimization/ protection and agency/ participation in their approaches to (post-) conflict settings?
My research transcends the disciplinary boundaries of political science, sociology and psychology and combines cross-country statistical analysis with qualitative fieldwork in Colombia.