Meredith Loken
Biographic Data
| ID | 1417668 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meredith Loken |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meredith |
| FAMILY NAME | Loken |
| SIGNATURE | LOKEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6135-2208 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 108 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Gendering rebel origins
Research on women’s participation in rebellions explores why such groups recruit women members, women’s rationale for joining, their pathways into armed organisations and their experiences therein. However, women are not only mobilised into rebel activity; they are also first movers: women founded or co-founded at least nine rebellions in the post-Second World War period. How do some women overcome common gendered barriers to entry and establish …
Women’s Wings in Rebel Organisations
Women's wings are a common feature of rebellions but we lack a systematic accounting of how women organise themselves or are organised within and across armed groups.In this article we describe the functions of and variation across women's wings globally.We identify significant variation in the types, purposes, and autonomy of women's wings inside and between groups.We also highlight similarities across units, including their role in mobilising w…
Introducing the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (Waar) project, 1946-2015
This article introduces the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (WAAR) project, a multi-methods project that includes a cross-sectional dataset of women's participation in more than 370 organizations fighting in civil conflicts between 1946 and 2015. The dataset features 22 measures of women's participation in rebel organizations: it includes prevalence and presence measures of women's participation in combat, non-combat and leadership roles; d…
Race and Racial Exclusion in Security Studies
Increased attention to racialized knowledge and methodological whiteness has swept the political science discipline, especially international relations. Yet an important dimension of race and racism continues to be ignored: the presence and status of scholars of color in the discipline. In contrast to other fields, there is little research on (under)representation of scholars of color in security studies, and no systematic studies of race and rac…
Queering Gender-Based Violence Scholarship
Research on armed conflict's gender dynamics has expanded significantly in the past decade. However, research in this field pays little attention to sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, where scholarship focused on violence against sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals during war exists, it is largely divorced from work on gender-based violence (GBV) in conflict-related environments and from sexuality studies. In this article,…
Noncombat Participation in Rebellion
Research on women's participation in rebel organizations often focuses on “frontline” fighters. But there is a dearth of scholarship about noncombat roles in rebel groups. This is surprising because scholarship on gender and rebellion suggests that women's involvement in rebel governance, publicity, and mobilization can have positive effects on civilian support for and participation in rebel organizations cross-nationally. Further, women often ma…
Using images as data in political violence research
Political violence research explores why and how human rights abuses occur and how interveners can mitigate violations. Images can be useful data for these projects because they are telling reflections of political actors’ ideologies and choices. Images are often windows into organizational strategy: the visuals that actors mobilize reveal beliefs about which symbols and narratives will resonate and which audiences they will target. Here, I use m…
Both needed and threatened’
Because women are assumed to be nonviolent, their participation in militant groups can humanize organizations and legitimize rebellion. But gender beliefs are deeply engrained, and consequently women’s involvement can also generate resistance. This article explores how militants navigate this tension through their political visuals, specifically analyzing images of ‘armed mothers’ across six diverse conflicts. Leveraging life-giving as the ‘natur…
Deploying Justice
Why do governments and militaries publicly condemn and prosecute particular forms of abuse? This article explores the Sri Lankan government's decision to promote limited legal accountability for state-perpetrated rape committed in a country otherwise renowned for widespread impunity. We argue that rather than representing a turn against impunity, the symbolic stance against conflict-related sexual violence in a small number of high-profile cases …
Rethinking Rape
There is widespread variation in scope, scale, and forms of rape across and within conflicts. One explanation focuses on the integration of women in armed groups. Scholars and international organizations posit that the inclusion of women in armed groups discourages wartime rape. They advocate women’s increased participation to combat rape and other forms of civilian violence. Using an original dataset of women's involvement as combatants in civil…
Explaining extremism
Women participate extensively in armed, Islamist struggle. In recent years, foreign women have travelled from the West to join Daesh. Their participation perplexes policymakers, government officials, and researchers who call attention to the group's gendered regulation, violence, and widespread use of rape. Consequently, observers often argue that women are deceived by the organisation or seduced by the promise of romance. This suggests that wome…
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism." Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), pp. 1100–1101
Both needed and threatened’
Because women are assumed to be nonviolent, their participation in militant groups can humanize organizations and legitimize rebellion. But gender beliefs are deeply engrained, and consequently women’s involvement can also generate resistance. This article explores how militants navigate this tension through their political visuals, specifically analyzing images of ‘armed mothers’ across six diverse conflicts. Leveraging life-giving as the ‘natur…
Deploying Justice
Why do governments and militaries publicly condemn and prosecute particular forms of abuse? This article explores the Sri Lankan government's decision to promote limited legal accountability for state-perpetrated rape committed in a country otherwise renowned for widespread impunity. We argue that rather than representing a turn against impunity, the symbolic stance against conflict-related sexual violence in a small number of high-profile cases …
Noncombat Participation in Rebellion
Research on women's participation in rebel organizations often focuses on “frontline” fighters. But there is a dearth of scholarship about noncombat roles in rebel groups. This is surprising because scholarship on gender and rebellion suggests that women's involvement in rebel governance, publicity, and mobilization can have positive effects on civilian support for and participation in rebel organizations cross-nationally. Further, women often ma…
Explaining extremism
Women participate extensively in armed, Islamist struggle. In recent years, foreign women have travelled from the West to join Daesh. Their participation perplexes policymakers, government officials, and researchers who call attention to the group's gendered regulation, violence, and widespread use of rape. Consequently, observers often argue that women are deceived by the organisation or seduced by the promise of romance. This suggests that wome…
Rethinking Rape
There is widespread variation in scope, scale, and forms of rape across and within conflicts. One explanation focuses on the integration of women in armed groups. Scholars and international organizations posit that the inclusion of women in armed groups discourages wartime rape. They advocate women’s increased participation to combat rape and other forms of civilian violence. Using an original dataset of women's involvement as combatants in civil…
Introducing the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (Waar) project, 1946-2015
This article introduces the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (WAAR) project, a multi-methods project that includes a cross-sectional dataset of women's participation in more than 370 organizations fighting in civil conflicts between 1946 and 2015. The dataset features 22 measures of women's participation in rebel organizations: it includes prevalence and presence measures of women's participation in combat, non-combat and leadership roles; d…
Women’s Wings in Rebel Organisations
Women's wings are a common feature of rebellions but we lack a systematic accounting of how women organise themselves or are organised within and across armed groups.In this article we describe the functions of and variation across women's wings globally.We identify significant variation in the types, purposes, and autonomy of women's wings inside and between groups.We also highlight similarities across units, including their role in mobilising w…
Race and Racial Exclusion in Security Studies
Increased attention to racialized knowledge and methodological whiteness has swept the political science discipline, especially international relations. Yet an important dimension of race and racism continues to be ignored: the presence and status of scholars of color in the discipline. In contrast to other fields, there is little research on (under)representation of scholars of color in security studies, and no systematic studies of race and rac…
Queering Gender-Based Violence Scholarship
Research on armed conflict's gender dynamics has expanded significantly in the past decade. However, research in this field pays little attention to sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, where scholarship focused on violence against sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals during war exists, it is largely divorced from work on gender-based violence (GBV) in conflict-related environments and from sexuality studies. In this article,…
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism." Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), pp. 1100–1101
Using images as data in political violence research
Political violence research explores why and how human rights abuses occur and how interveners can mitigate violations. Images can be useful data for these projects because they are telling reflections of political actors’ ideologies and choices. Images are often windows into organizational strategy: the visuals that actors mobilize reveal beliefs about which symbols and narratives will resonate and which audiences they will target. Here, I use m…
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism
BringBackOurGirls and the Invisibility of Imperialism." Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), pp. 1100–1101
Rethinking Rape
There is widespread variation in scope, scale, and forms of rape across and within conflicts. One explanation focuses on the integration of women in armed groups. Scholars and international organizations posit that the inclusion of women in armed groups discourages wartime rape. They advocate women’s increased participation to combat rape and other forms of civilian violence. Using an original dataset of women's involvement as combatants in civil…
Explaining extremism
Women participate extensively in armed, Islamist struggle. In recent years, foreign women have travelled from the West to join Daesh. Their participation perplexes policymakers, government officials, and researchers who call attention to the group's gendered regulation, violence, and widespread use of rape. Consequently, observers often argue that women are deceived by the organisation or seduced by the promise of romance. This suggests that wome…
Deploying Justice
Why do governments and militaries publicly condemn and prosecute particular forms of abuse? This article explores the Sri Lankan government's decision to promote limited legal accountability for state-perpetrated rape committed in a country otherwise renowned for widespread impunity. We argue that rather than representing a turn against impunity, the symbolic stance against conflict-related sexual violence in a small number of high-profile cases …
Both needed and threatened’
Because women are assumed to be nonviolent, their participation in militant groups can humanize organizations and legitimize rebellion. But gender beliefs are deeply engrained, and consequently women’s involvement can also generate resistance. This article explores how militants navigate this tension through their political visuals, specifically analyzing images of ‘armed mothers’ across six diverse conflicts. Leveraging life-giving as the ‘natur…
Using images as data in political violence research
Political violence research explores why and how human rights abuses occur and how interveners can mitigate violations. Images can be useful data for these projects because they are telling reflections of political actors’ ideologies and choices. Images are often windows into organizational strategy: the visuals that actors mobilize reveal beliefs about which symbols and narratives will resonate and which audiences they will target. Here, I use m…
Queering Gender-Based Violence Scholarship
Research on armed conflict's gender dynamics has expanded significantly in the past decade. However, research in this field pays little attention to sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, where scholarship focused on violence against sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals during war exists, it is largely divorced from work on gender-based violence (GBV) in conflict-related environments and from sexuality studies. In this article,…
Noncombat Participation in Rebellion
Research on women's participation in rebel organizations often focuses on “frontline” fighters. But there is a dearth of scholarship about noncombat roles in rebel groups. This is surprising because scholarship on gender and rebellion suggests that women's involvement in rebel governance, publicity, and mobilization can have positive effects on civilian support for and participation in rebel organizations cross-nationally. Further, women often ma…
Race and Racial Exclusion in Security Studies
Increased attention to racialized knowledge and methodological whiteness has swept the political science discipline, especially international relations. Yet an important dimension of race and racism continues to be ignored: the presence and status of scholars of color in the discipline. In contrast to other fields, there is little research on (under)representation of scholars of color in security studies, and no systematic studies of race and rac…
Gendering rebel origins
Research on women’s participation in rebellions explores why such groups recruit women members, women’s rationale for joining, their pathways into armed organisations and their experiences therein. However, women are not only mobilised into rebel activity; they are also first movers: women founded or co-founded at least nine rebellions in the post-Second World War period. How do some women overcome common gendered barriers to entry and establish …
Women’s Wings in Rebel Organisations
Women's wings are a common feature of rebellions but we lack a systematic accounting of how women organise themselves or are organised within and across armed groups.In this article we describe the functions of and variation across women's wings globally.We identify significant variation in the types, purposes, and autonomy of women's wings inside and between groups.We also highlight similarities across units, including their role in mobilising w…
Introducing the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (Waar) project, 1946-2015
This article introduces the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (WAAR) project, a multi-methods project that includes a cross-sectional dataset of women's participation in more than 370 organizations fighting in civil conflicts between 1946 and 2015. The dataset features 22 measures of women's participation in rebel organizations: it includes prevalence and presence measures of women's participation in combat, non-combat and leadership roles; d…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)