Dr Sahla Aroussi is an Associate Professor in Global Security Challenges at the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. She has been previously employed at Coventry University, at the Centre of Trust Peace and Social Relations. She has a Ph.D. in Politics (2011) and an LLM in Transitional Justice (2007) from the University of Ulster and an MA Human Rights and Democratisation (2004) from the University of Malta/ Utrecht University. Sahla was previously a Postdoctoral researcher in the University of Antwerp’s Faculty of law and a member of the Law and Development research group. She also worked as an intern at the Northern Ireland Commission for Human Rights and the European Parliament. Sahla’s regional expertise is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region.

Dr Sahla Aroussi is a feminist scholar. Her research interests are broadly situated in the field of gender and armed conflicts and particularly: the UN’s agenda on Women, Peace and Security; gender in peace settlements; sexual violence in armed conflict; gender and violent extremism; and gender inequality and exclusion. Sahla has received various awards and scholarships including a British Academy Tackling UK International Challenges Award, a GCRF Global Network Grant, NATO Science for Peace and Security Advanced Research Workshop grant (2015) and The British Academy/ Leverhulme Grant (2015). Sahla’s key research outputs include peer reviewed academic publications in international journals such as the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Gender & Politics; and the International Journal of Feminist Politics, edited collections, research consultancy work, and a book on assessing the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security in peace processes around the world.

 

Selected Publications

• Aroussi, S. (2020) ‘Strange bedfellows: Interrogating the unintended consequences of integrating countering violent extremism with the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda in Kenya’. Politics and Gender First View DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X20000124.
• Aroussi, S. (2019) ‘Researching wartime rape in Eastern Congo: Why we should continue to talk to survivors’ Qualitative Research. 12 November 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794119884880
• Aroussi, S. (2018) ‘Perceptions of justice and hierarchies of rape: Rethinking approaches to sexual violence in Eastern Congo from the ground up’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice. DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijy005
• Aroussi, S. (ed.) (2017) Rethinking National Action Plans (NAPs) on Women, Peace and Security, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series, IOS press.
• Aroussi, S. (2017) Women, Peace, and Security: Repositioning gender in peace agreements, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Intersentia.
• Aroussi, Sahla (2017) ‘Women, Peace and Security and the Democratic Republic of the Congo:  Time to rethink sexual violence as gender based harm?’, Politics and Gender 13(3), pp. 488-515. DOI: 10.1017/S1743923X16000489.
• Aroussi, S. and Vandeginste, S (2013) ‘When interests meet norms: The Relevance of Human Rights for Peace and Power-Sharing’ The International Journal of Human Rights, 17 (2) pp.183- 203.
• Aroussi, S and Somerville, I. (2013) ‘Campaigning for ‘Women, Peace and Security’: Transnational advocacy networks at the United Nations Security Council’ in Gender and public relations:  Critical perspectives on voice, image and identity, C. Daymon & K. Demetrious (eds.) London: Routledge. pp. 156-176.
• Aroussi, S. (2011) ‘‘Women, Peace and Security’: Addressing accountability for wartime sexual violence’ The International Feminist Journal of Politics, 14 (4) pp. 576-593.

Selected Projects

• 2019-2021 GCRF Global Engagement Network on Gender and Responding to Violent Extremism. UK Co-Director with the United States International University in Kenya and the Rift Valley Institute.
• 2019- 2020 British Academy Tackling international Challenges award. Project Title: Gender and Resistance to Violent Extremism: Untold stories of everyday resistance in Kenya.
• 2017- 2018      Coventry University Research Innovation Award. Project title: ‘Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and countering violent extremism (CVE) in Tunisia and Kenya’: A preliminary study.
• 2015- 2016 NATO Science and Security Programme. Project Title: ‘National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security’ with Melanie Hoewer, University College Dublin.
• 2015 – 2017     British Academy/Leverhulme research grant. Project title: ‘Perceptions of justice and hierarchies of rape: Rethinking approaches to sexual violence in conflict affected societies from the bottom-up’.