Research

My scholarship and training are interdisciplinary and broadly inscribed in the humanistic social sciences, with graduate degrees in International Peace Studies (MA) and International Relations (PhD). My research pays attention to the intersection between theory production and political practice, in particular women’s and feminist activism and advocacy around peace and social justice issues. I draw from a vast tradition of feminist research that takes activists seriously as theorists. This has allowed me to rethink and reshape the subjects, methodologies and foundational questions of the fields of Peace Studies and International Relations (IR).

I write and publish on the history of feminist international thought and feminist organizing, particularly about the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). This is the main subject of my book entitled Intelligent Compassion: Feminist Critical Methodology in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (New York: Oxford UP, 2012) as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Second, my individual historical research and the collaborations developed through the Feminist Peace Research Network have led me to contemporary forms of feminist peace thinking and action, including feminist engagements with the UN Women, Peace, and Security Agenda and feminist peace theories. Besides several co authored peer reviewed articles and book chapters, the primary result of this engagement has been the co-edited (with Tarja Väyrynen, Swati Parashar, and Élise Féron) Handbook of Feminist Peace Research (New York: Routledge, 2021).

More recently, I have expanded my interests toward the exploration of intersections between feminist peace research and global health. This resulted first in a 2015 article co-authored with one of my Wellesley students and published in Health, Policy and Planning. I have also co-edited with Tiina Vaittinent a volume entitled Gender, Global Health and Violence: Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Disease (London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020).

Both edited volumes were completed thanks to the support of the Fulbright Finland Foundation, which enabled me to spend a sabbatical semester at the Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), Tampere University, Finland between July 2019 and January 2020.