Carrie Reiling, PhD Candidate, Political Science GFE BROWN BAG TALK


 Gender and Sexuality Studies     Apr 26 2017 | 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM HG 3200

THE DEPARTMENT OF GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES PRESENTS
Carrie Reiling, PhD Candidate, Political Science
GFE BROWN BAG TALK
The UN Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security resolutions have been commended for
fostering women’s inclusion in peace and security; however, the language of the resolutions
and the rhetoric surrounding them have reinforced discourses about Africans, gender, and
conflict, reproducing sub-Saharan Africa as internally undifferentiated and as the place where
women are most at risk. Conceptions of women in conflict and of conflict in Africa tend to
reinforce and perpetuate the continued attention to sexualized violence as opposed to other
forms of violence and possibilities of peace building in international policy. While academic
critiques of the attention to sexualized violence have begun to proliferate, they do not
investigate the source of this focus, nor how it falls predominantly on African women. This
paper examines how local women’s organizations in West Africa work to counter victimizing,
marginalizing discourses through their implementation of the WPS agenda. I ask if women’s
organizing in their own communities can decolonize international peace and security policies,
or if the policies themselves must be rewritten. Through interviews and participant
observation, I explore whether local practice can decolonize international policy, or if it is
beholden to policymakers and donors to such an extent that decolonization is all but
impossible.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Time: 12:00 P.M. - 1:30 P.M.
Location: HG 3200

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