Asking Feminist Questions about Terrorism and Political Violence CSTPV Seminar

Bio: Dr Roxani Krystalli is a Lecturer at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Her research and teaching focus on feminist peace and conflict studies, as well as on the politics of nature and place. A key question animating Roxani's explorations within and beyond the academy is how people reimagine worlds in the wake of loss. Roxani's research has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships from the United States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, among others. Her writing has appeared in the International Studies Review, International Feminist Journal of Politics, the European Journal of International Relations, Global Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Narrative Politics, the Journal of Refugee Studies, the Oxford Handbook on Gender and Conflict, Disasters, the Washington Post, and in other outlets. Alongside her scholarship, Roxani has worked at the intersection of gender and peace-building as a practitioner for over a decade, and she still advises international organisations, governments, and NGOs on various aspects of gender, peace, and justice.

Talk synopsis/abstract: How can feminist thinking help scholars reimagine the study and experience of political violence? Beyond “adding women and stirring,” this talk invites scholars to consider how feminist approaches influence the questions we ask about violence, affect the labelling of different actors and policies mobilised in response to their actions, and shape understandings of the effects of violence, its endings, and its afterlives. The talk will also consider some of the tensions within feminist scholarship, as well as the uncomfortable dissonances and generative synergies that can emerge when scholars of feminism, political violence, and terrorism sit at the same table. Finally, drawing from the speaker's experience of working on gender, violence, and justice as a humanitarian practitioner in conflict-affected areas, the talk will highlight some of the dilemmas of feminism in practice.