PhD Studentship in Women Peace and Security

Call for Applications: PhD Studentship in Women Peace And Securtity

Durham Law School

Starting September 2022

 

Applications are invited for a funded PhD studentship at Durham Law School. 

 

The PhD project is part of the WPS Helpdesk Consortium, led by Saferworld and which includes Durham University as academic partner. The Consortium brings together Saferworld, Conciliation Resources, Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS UK), Women’s International Peace Centre (Uganda) and Durham University to provide high quality expert helpdesk services that contribute to the integration of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) concerns in conflict/security-focused policy and programming, and boost the UK Government’s capacity to sustain the integration and advancement of WPS in line with its National Action Plan (NAP). 

 

The Helpdesk will cover all aspects of WPS from international policy-making (for example, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) developments) to national, regional, local and community-level implementation of the WPS agenda. Further, the Helpdesk allows for support to other relevant UK policy priorities such as the 2030 Strategic Vision for Gender Equality, the Call to Action to end GBV in Emergencies, the Prevention of Sexual Violence Initiative, and can help in meeting the gender equality ambitions of the 2014 International Development (Gender Equality). The Helpdesk is underpinned by four Guiding Principles, namely commitments to adaptive learning, an intersectional feminist approach, evidence-based learning and equal partnerships. 

 

The PhD takes as its focus the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, broadly defined. WPS is an international normative agenda emerging from the United Nations Security Council. The four pillars of WPS as laid out in UNSC Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 are the role of women in conflict prevention, women’s participation in peacebuilding, the protection of women and girls during and after conflict, and women’s specific needs during repatriation, resettlement, and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict re-construction. The WPS agenda is implemented through an extensive international architecture, including the UN Women Peace and Security team, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict; regional implementing policy frameworks, including regional WPS Plans adopted by NATO, the Arab Region and the EU; and National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security, now adopted by several states across all continents. In addition to these formal policy frameworks, civil society continues to advocate for the advancement, development and implementations of WPS commitments across local, national, regional and international peacebuilding. Further, WPS is the subject of an extensive and cross-disciplinary body of scholarship, investigating inter alia its legal significance, its policy efficacy, its implementation on the ground, its impact on gender norms, and its intersection with other conflict and peacemaking agendas. 

In the context of WPS, this PhD research project will take place as the UK develops and adopts a new National Action Plan on WPS, the WPS agenda enters a new era at the UNSC, in which it is no longer necessarily underpinned by consensus amongst P-5 members, and Russian aggression in Ukraine poses more fundamental challenges to the collective security system. 

 

The successful candidate might take a number of routes through these questions including exploring key aspects that are of interest to them.  Some emerging areas of exploration include:

 

  • In what ways does the international WPS framework, as set out by the UN Security Council, intersect with, contest and learn from local and civil society based articulations of WPS?

  • In what ways might some legal and policy developments be agreed, while others remain unresolved?

  • What is the relationship of WPS to securitization and militarism in peacebuilding?

  • How might general and complete disarmament be advanced through a WPS framework?

  • How can we advance thinking on the implementation of WPS in the context of peace mediation processes?

  • What are the implications of WPS for broader inclusion agendas, including men and boys and LGBTQ+ inclusion?

  • What can peacebuilding and transitional justice within WPS bring to divisions around gender identity and gender equality? Conversely, what can considerations of gender identity and gender equality bring to understandings of peacebuilding and transitional justice within WPS?

  • What role do ideational factors such as religion and race play in the legitimacy and implementation of the WPS agenda?

  • How/can the WPS agenda address the gendered risks of climate change and climate related conflict?

  • What is the relationship between war crimes tribunals and WPS?

  • What role exists – or not – for apologies and reconciliation in response to sexual violence?

  • What is the place of displacement and migration within WPS?

 

The direction of your project will be informed by two engaged and enthusiastic supervisors with complimentary expertise to achieve new knowledge in WPS. These supervisors may include Dr Catherine Turner (Durham Law School), an expert in peace mediation, gender and international law; Professor Catherine O’Rourke (Durham Law School) an expert in the protection of women’s rights in conflict under international law, gender and transitional justice, women’s human rights and rights of sexual orientation and gender identity; Dr Olga Demetriou (Durham Global Security Institute), an expert in minority rights, gender, displacement, and refugeehood; and Professor Nayanika Mookherjee (Anthropology), an expert in ethnographic exploration of public memories of violent pasts and aesthetic practices of reparative futures, including on sexual and gender-based violence. 

 

The successful candidate will have a record of academic achievement, strong writing and research skills and an ability to work to deadlines. In order to support Durham University’s activities as academic partner to the WPS Helpdesk, the successful candidate will have strong communication skills (oral and writing) with diverse audiences, including social media, organization skills, and an ability to manage multiple tasks. Experience in event-planning and WPS advocacy and/or policy-making is desirable.   

Applications should be made through the normal Durham Law School PhD studentship application process, as detailed here.

 

 

Please note that the application date is April 29 and the application should be accompanied by two academic references. Informal inquiries should be directed to either Prof. Catherine O’Rourke (Catherine.f.o’rourke@durham.ac.uk) or Dr Catherine Turner (catherine.turner@durham.ac.uk). 

 

Catherine Turner