Dr Aiko Holvikivi

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Gender, Peace and Security. This course is available on the MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), 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 has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically very high. Places are guaranteed for those students for whom it is a degree requirement. Further places on the course are allocated based on a short motivational statement, with priority given to students for whom it is a listed option. Department of Gender Studies students do not need to provide a statement. 

This course provides a critical examination of gender, peace and security issues in conflict and post-conflict contexts.  Specifically, the course focuses on the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which originated in UN 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 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: gendered perspectives on war and peace; 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; peace processes, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance; and evaluation of a range of different critiques of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

This half-unit foundational course runs in the Autumn term. It is taught through lectures and seminars.

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

• Basu, S., Kirby, P. & Shepherd, L.J. (eds) (2020) New Directions in Women, Peace and Security, Bristol University Press.
• Cohn, C. (ed.) (2013) Women and Wars, Polity Press. 
• Coomaraswamy, R. (ed.) (2015) Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, Securing the Peace: Global Study on the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, UN Women.
• Davies, S.E. & True, J. (eds) (2018) The Oxford Handbook of Women Peace and Security, Oxford University Press.
• Enloe, C. (2010), Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, University of California Press.
• Zalewski, M., Drumond, P., Prugl,E., & Stern,M. 2018. (eds). Sexual Violence Against Men in Global Politics, Routledge.

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the WT.