Photo: European military attachés at a NATO demilitarization fundraiser, Mari Bastashevski
Course Number: PPGA 591B
Course Name: Gender, Peace and Security
Location: Choi 3rd Floor Boardroom (Room 351)
Term: 2026 Winter Term 2
Date and Time: Fridays, 9:30-12:30 am
Office Hours: Fridays, 1:30-3:30 pm or by appointment via Zoom or in-person
Instructor: Erin Baines, Office 216 Liu Institute
Course Description:
This course is designed to deepen your understanding of feminist approaches to peace and security. Following decades of transnational feminist activism, the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 2000)—also known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (UNSCR 1325, or the WPS Agenda)— officially recognized women’s experiences of conflict, peace and security and called upon member states to develop action-plans. Twenty-five years later, the global landscape has significantly changed with the rise of anti-gender ideology, intensification of militarization and martial politics, climate catastrophes, and the rise of authoritarianism.
In the first half of the course (classes 1-7), we will question how power manifests as the regulation and governance of gendered, queer, and racialised bodies in shifting global landscapes. In the second half of the course (classes 8-12), we will explore how you, as a future policy maker, might learn from and with social movements and grassroots communities. How do social movements challenge state and non-state violence in settings of security, denial and silence, and open spaces to (re)imagine and realise peace? How might we center other ways of knowing peace and security? How might feminist care, curiosity and hope lead us to re-imagine the WPS agenda? Your assignments are designed to build your own ‘feminist toolkit’ for future policymaking in the field.
This syllabus was written with the support and insights of Alyssa Victorino.