Bio

Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Swedish Defence University

I am a feminist researcher studying women's mobilisation in communities affected by conflict and violence in Latin America. I am passionate about gender justice, and use academic research, advocacy, and commentary to draw attention to and support women's rights.

I am a political sociologist whose work focuses on women’s mobilisation in violent and high risk contexts, mainly in Latin America. My approach to research is interdisciplinary, drawing on social movement studies, gender studies, and peace and conflict studies.

• Current Position: I am a Wallenberg Academy Fellow at the Department of War Studies, Swedish Defence University. Read more about my 5 year project on feminist response to backlash after conflict in Latin America here.

• Previous Position: From 2020-2024 I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (UNAM, Mexico) and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (Oxford, UK). My three-year research project was entitled: “High Risk Leadership in Latin America: Women’s Pursuit of Gender Justice in Violent Contexts.” It further documented and explained women’s high risk mobilisation in the region, and comparatively studied women’s leadership in high risk social movements across Latin America. Prior to this, I was the Postdoctoral Gender Researcher for Oxford’s CONPEACE Programme (2019), at the Changing Character of War Centre. I engaged in in-depth fieldwork along the Colombian-Venezuelan border (in la Guajira, Norte de Santander, and Arauca) to investigate the gendered impacts of the reconfiguration of armed conflict and Venezuelan migration on women living the borderlands.

• Doctoral Thesis: My doctoral thesis (Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, 2018) — “High Risk Feminism in Colombia: Women’s Mobilisation in High Risk Contexts” — is based on ethnographic research with three women’s organisations mobilising for gender justice in Colombia. This project was an advancement of my MPhil project (Latin American Centre, University of Oxford, 2014), which similarly focused on feminist mobilisation in gang-controlled zones in El Salvador. You can read more about this research in my book, here.

• Publishing: I have published research (or forthcoming) in journals including the Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of Gender and Politics, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Third World Quarterly, Latin American Perspectives, Gender, Place, and Culture, and Gender and Development. I believe that it is important to leverage research and commentary to bring a feminist lens to debates about security and conflict; examples of this work can be found in the Monkey Cage (The Washington Post), the Guardian, LASA Forum, NACLA Report on the Americas, Ms Magazine, and justiceinfo.net (Oxford Transitional Justice Research). I have undertaken research for the Centre for Reproductive Rights, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, the Equality Fund, Impunity Watch, and the Overseas Development Institute.

• Research Consulting: Additionally, I am a Senior Researcher at Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy, where I have contributed to research and reports that collect, analyse, and take action on gender data. I lead Ladysmith’s Women, Peace and Security + Portfolio of work.

• Legal Advocacy: Finally, I serve as an expert witness in asylum trials related to gender-based violence. I am registered with the UC Hasting Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. Please reach out directly via their website.

Academic C.V.

Education