How to Study Gender in International Security? An Introduction to Feminist Security Studies
- Kateřina Krulišová
, - Dagmar Rychnovská
Abstract
Thinking on war, violence and security has always been associated with concepts of femininity and masculinity. Similarly, wars and political transformations also change the notions of the roles of women and men in society. This article shows how the links between gender identities and threat construction, understanding of aggression, or social sensitivity to different types of victims of violence can be studied academically. It introduces feminist security studies, embeds it in the research of international relations and security, and encourages its development in the Czech academic environment. The article introduces key concepts and methods of studying gender in (international) security, identifies key themes in feminist security research, and explains various approaches and types of questions that can be investigated in this area.
Keywords
gender, feminism, security, identity, methods
Author Biography
Kateřina Krulišová
Kateřina Krulišová is a Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Studies from Nottingham Trent University. Her work focuses on female perpetrators of political violence, the misogyny hate crime initiative, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Central and Eastern Europe. Her research interests further include feminist security studies, feminist pedagogy, and the politics of memory.
Dagmar Rychnovská
Dagmar Rychnovská is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna. She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations (Charles University in Prague), an M.A. in Comparative and International Studies (ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich) and an LLM in Law and Politics of International Security (VU University Amsterdam). In her current work, she explores security controversies in research and innovation, while drawing on security studies and science and technology studies. Her research interests include critical security studies, sociology of science, politics of new threats and security expertise.