Research Areas
Feminist International Relations
How gender shapes war, security and political order, and what feminist theory adds to the study of international politics.
Gender, Security and Insurgency
Women fighters and armed movements, and how revolutionary organizations shape gender equality.
Latin America and Comparative Politics
Comparative work on Colombia, Mexico and Kurdistan, connecting Latin American and Middle Eastern cases.
Projects
Current Research
Book Project · Tentative Title
Insurgent Feminism in Global Revolution
Lessons from Colombian and Kurdish Guerrilla Fighters
My current book manuscript examines whether the feminist norms, behaviors, and political socialization acquired by combatants during their respective conflicts can truly succeed in crossing over into the realm of civilian politics – or whether my concept of “feminist backsliding” is inevitable under the pressures of demobilization and reintegration.
The project utilizes a cross-regional, mixed-methods comparison of Colombia’s FARC and the Kurdish PKK-YPG, integrating interviews with combatants and excombatants, surveys adapted from the World Values Survey-Wave 7 (WVS-7), and a comparative content analysis of political party speeches and communiqués. My research is rooted in thirteen months of in-person doctoral fieldwork.
64
in-depth interviews
162
surveys
193
party speeches and communiqués analyzed
My book manuscript has a complete first draft and is currently undergoing revisions following a manuscript workshop with four senior faculty members at Rutgers University in October 2025.
War as Generative Process
Can war, traditionally understood as a force for destruction, also create the conditions for gender equality and democratic expansion? My work challenges conventional assumptions that armed conflict necessarily reinforces patriarchal structures, arguing instead that the necessities of guerrilla warfare can in fact create contradictory but significant openings for women’s political participation and claims to social equality.
More concretely, my theoretical framework identifies three primary mechanisms through which war may produce more gender-progressive political outcomes:
1
Need-based role reconfiguration
Armed conflict often necessitates the sudden restructuring of social and organizational roles.
2
Radical and unexpected political socialization
Excombatants of the Colombian FARC I interviewed often spoke of the guerrilla as an aula (classroom). Participation in armed struggle inevitably serves as a site for political socialization.
3
Institutional translation
The insurgents’ transition from an armed movement into a formal political party creates opportunities for them to translate their gender-equal wartime practices and ideologies into formal institutional commitments.
My work thus presents a distinctly Global South-driven account of political transformation that treats insurgents as unlikely (but very real) agents of a feminist-democratic inclusion.
Next Project
Expanding the Kurdish Case Study
My next major research objective is to substantially expand my existing Kurdish dataset, publish a third original dataset through ICPSR, and develop a second interactive Kurdish data dashboard to complement my existing Colombian platform.
Importantly, the ongoing Kurdish peace process provides an important new opportunity to investigate how wartime political practices and gender roles are transformed, maintained, or dismantled during a period of transition and uncertainty.
Original Datasets
Two original mixed-methods datasets built from her dissertation research. The first draws on survey and interview data collected with 153 former FARC combatants. The second is a content analysis of 193 official documents of Turkish, Kurdish and Colombian political party material. Both are archived with the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The FARC survey results can be explored interactively in the Data Dashboard.
Methods and Fieldwork
Her work uses comparative and mixed-methods approaches. Her dissertation fieldwork took place in Colombia (May–October 2021) and in Turkey, France and Germany (January–June 2022).