Laura Shepherd, Ph.D.

laura.shepherd@sydney.edu.au

The University of Sydney

Country: Australia (New South Wales)

About Me:

My research draws on the fields of gender studies, international relations and critical security studies. My primary research area is the United Nations Security Council’s ‘Women, Peace and Security’ agenda, which is a collection of UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to the rights of women in conflict and conflict-affected settings. I have written extensively on the formulation of UNSCR1325 and subsequent Women, Peace and Security practices. I also have strong interests in pedagogy and and popular culture.

Research Interests

International Law & Organization

Conflict Processes & War

Gender and Politics

Public Policy

Text as Data

Research Methods & Research Design

UNSCR 1325, WPS

Feminist Peace Politics

Peace Building

My Research:

Current projects:Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Through Women, Peace and Security This research advances knowledge about efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism (CT/CVE) and the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, investigating how these two sets of practices are being brought into alignment at the UN level and in the three country case studies of Australia, the UK, and Sweden. ARC FT170100037 (2018-2021).Women, Peace and Security: Rethinking Policy, Advocacy and ImplementationThis research applies discourse-theoretical analysis to the formation of the WPS policy architecture, mapping feminist advocacy around the WPS agenda, and analysing the implementation of the WPS agenda at the national level. ARC DP160100212 (2016-2019).UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security HubThis grant supports interdisciplinary Hub on Gender, Justice and Security, which is a multi-country collaboration funded for five years. Laura is co-Director of one of the streams within the Hub, on Methodological Innovation, and lead investigator on a project within the Law and Policy Frameworks stream investigating how donor funding shapes the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.