Prof. Laura Shepherd1
1University of Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Laura J. Shepherd is a professor of International Relations at the University of Sydney, Australia. Laura’s research explores gender and global governance from feminist and decolonial perspectives. Recent books include Governing the Feminist Peace (with Paul Kirby; Oxford UP, 2024) and The Self, and Other Stories (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).
Abstract:
Read through the lens of Charles Mills’ concept of “epistemologies of ignorance”, governance feminism is invested in the maintenance of structures of white supremacy. This paper explores the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda as a prominent architecture of governance feminism in contemporary peace and security institutions. Specifically, the paper examines the focus within the WPS agenda on sexual violence in conflict (SViC), arguing that the disproportionate emphasis on SViC is a function of the racialized, colonial, and carceral logics that organise the agenda. The paper presents an original analysis of ten WPS resolutions and fifteen years of reports on SViC presented to the UN Security Council by the Secretary-General. Drawing on abolitionist and anti-carceral politics of violence prevention in domestic settings, the paper demonstrates the complicity of the WPS agenda, and governance feminism more broadly, in practices of racialized oppression.