Dr Aisling Swaine

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Women, Peace and Security. This course is available on the MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies and MSc in Media, Communication and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course provides a critical examination of peace and security issues affecting women in conflict and postconflict contexts.  Specifically, the course focuses on the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which originated in Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) followed by a series of subsequent resolutions to date. The course covers the main pillars of the WPS agenda, namely women's participation; protection from gendered violence; the prevention of conflict and violence; and gendered approaches to relief and recovery in conflict and post-conflict settings. The course examines a range of issues through a gender and feminist lens. 

Topics include: the socio-legal context of the Women, Peace and Security agenda; the history of Women, Peace and Security laws and policies; definitions and scope of gender-based and sexual violence in conflict; combating impunity and addressing accountability; peace processes and women’s participation; gender, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance; and evaluation of a range of different critiques of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students will have a reading week in Week 6 in line with departmental policy. 

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT.

Buss, D., Lebert, J., Rutherford, B., Sharkey, D., & Aginam, O. (Eds) (2014) Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: International Agendas and African Contexts, Routledge; Cohn, C. (Ed) (2013) Women and Wars, Polity Press; Olonisakin, F., Barnes, K., & Ikpe, E. (Eds) (2010) Women, Peace and Security: Translating Policy into Practice, Routledge; Chinkin C. and Kaldor, M. (2013) ‘Gender and New Wars’, Journal of International Affairs, 67(1), pp.167-187; Mibenge C.S. (2013) Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative, University of Pennsylvania Press; Otto, D. and Heathcote, G. (Eds) (2014) Rethinking Peacekeeping, Gender Equality and Collective Security: An Introduction, Routledge; Global Study on Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, Securing Peace: A Global Study on the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325; Davies, SE and True, J (eds) (2018) The Oxford Handbook of Women Peace and Security, Oxford University Press

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the LT.

Summative assessment to be submitted in the first week of LT.