8 million to research project on women and political violence

The Norwegian Research Council has awarded an 8 million NOK Early Career Scientists’ grant jointly to Norwegian researcher Jenny Lorentzen (PI), from the Norwegian Institute of International affairs and Swedish Defence University researcher Priscyll Anctil Avoine.

The two researchers receive the grant for the project From combatants and war supporters to peacemakers? Women’s participation in political violence and political transitions (Gendered Transitions).

In this project, the researchers will look at how women’s participation in political violence translates into their participation in political transitions. To do so, the project is based on close collaboration between four young female researchers both in the global south and north.

– We feel very privilege to have the opportunity to carry out this project, which builds on our respective decade-long engagement in researching conflicts and peace in Colombia and Mali. We want to show that women are both war supporters and peacemakers, and their exclusion risks undermining efforts to build sustainable peace in conflict-affected societies, says Priscyll Anctil Avoine.

The project uses qualitative feminist and ethnographic methods to explore these questions in Mali and Colombia.