Project title
Gendering Rebel Legitimacy in Civil War
Project description
This project explores the role of gender in politically violent organizations, examining how militant groups leverage gendered narratives and images in their public messaging to shape external perceptions of their movements. Specifically, this project asks how both women’s participation in militant groups and violence targeting women civilians shape militant publicity and propaganda strategies aimed at domestic and international audiences. As such, this approach shifts the analytic lens away from militant organizations’ armed operations and towards their meaning-making activities and reputational concerns. While taking a cross-organizational approach, this project currently focuses in-depth on militant organizations previously active in Northern Ireland.
Selected publications
Meredith Loken and Hilary Matfess, 2023. “Introducing the Women’s Activities in Armed Rebellion (WAAR) Project 1946-2015,” Journal of Peace Research, OnlineFirst
Meredith Loken, 2022. “Non-Combat Participation in Rebellion: A Gendered Typology,” International Security 47(1): 139-170
Meredith Loken, 2020. “‘Both Needed and Threatened:’ Armed Mothers in Militant Visuals,” Security Dialogue 52(1): 21-44