INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENDER AND RESPONDING TO VIOLENT EXTREMISM

We welcome you to GARVE Network’s inaugural conference.

The conference aims to explore how attention to gender in P/CVE research and policies has impacted first on responses to violent extremism and second on the women’s rights agenda and local communities over the last few years.

Day One

Panel 1: Women as Perpetrators of Violence

9:00-10:45 (UK time) — Register →

1. Pathways to Radicalization and Recruitment for at-Risk Women and Female New Converts
   Ms. Christine Kamau, Independent Consultant
   Maia Blume, Knowledge & Learning Director, CREATE, Wasafiri Consulting
2. The Women of Al-Shabaab
   Dr. Orly Maya Stern, Visiting Fellow of Practice, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University
3. The Complexity of Kenyan Women’s Mobilization into al-Shabaab
   Dr. Hawa Noor Zitzmann, Affiliated fellow of the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS), University of Bremen
4. Gendering PVE and CVE in post-revolutionary Tunisia
   Guendalina Simoncini, PhD Candidate, Department of Political and Social Science, University of Pisa

Panel 2: Countering Violent Extremism, Democracy, and Human Rights

12:00-13:45 (UK time) — Register →

1. Suffering in silence: the widows of anti-terror programs at the Kenya Coast Hussein Abdullahi Mahmoud, Associate Professor of Social/Cultural Anthropology, Technical University of Mombasa, Kenya
2. Violence: The Formation and Dissolution of the Racist Self
   Dr. Mehr Latif, Post-doctoral Associate, University of Pittsburgh
   Professor Kathleen Blee, Professor of Sociology and the Bailey Dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies, University of Pittsburgh.
   Matthew DeMichele, Director, Center for Courts and Corrections Research (CCC)
   Dr. Peter Simi, Associate Professor, Chapman University
3. Can CVE Be Salvaged? Lessons and Questions from Gendered Practice
   Rosalie Fransen, Senior Program Officer (Gender and Extremisms), International Civil Society Action Network
4. Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism: A Focus on Gender Inequality and Misogynistic Violence
   Edith Okupa, Founder/Executive Director of Restoration Project International

Roundtable on Gender, CVE and Afghanistan

15:00-16:45 (UK time) — Register →

• Belquis Ahmadi, Senior Program Officer, United States Institute of Peace
• Dr. Holly A Ritchie, Founder, THRIVE (Kenya) and Consultant/Research Fellow, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University
• Dr. Saeed Parto, Co-founder and Director of Research, Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO)
• Dr. Iffat Idris, International Development Department Research Fellow, GSDRC, University of Birmingham

Day Two

Panel 1: Gender in P/CVE Policies

9:00-10:45 (UK time) — Register →

1. The Inconsequentiality of Mother’s Knowledge and Experiences in Violent Extremism Discourse
   Beatrice Kizi Nzovu, Team Leader, Africa Country Programmes,  Life & Peace Institute
2. Absorbing Difference: Global North/South Disparities in P/CVE Policy and Practice
   Dr. Elizabeth Mesok, SNF PRIMA Fellow, Center for Gender Studies, University of Basel
   Darja Schildknecht, PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Graduate School for Social Sciences, University of Basel 
   Nora Naji, PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Graduate School for Social Sciences, University of Basel
3. Women, Peace, and Security agenda: an assessment of Nigeria’s national action plan on UNSCR 1325
   Akinkunmi Afeez Akinlabi, PhD Candidate, Obafemi Awolowo University.

Panel 2: Masculinities and Violent Extremism

12:00-13:45 (UK time) — Register →

1. Key messages, insights and questions on masculinities and violent extremism from a brief literature review
   Dr. Okumba Miruka, Development Consultant & Writer, Kenya
2. Why have a masculinities perspective on violent extremism?: Opportunities and challenges
   Dr. David Duriesmith, Lecturer in Gender and Politics, The University of Sheffield  
3. Gender, Youth and Violent Extremism
   Dr. Marc Sommers, International Consultant
4. Queering Terrorism
   Dr. Emeka T. Njoku,  Newton International Fellow, University of Birmingham
5. Masculinities and Violent Extremism – insights from the Somali context
   Judith Gardner, Independent Researcher and Fellow, Rift Valley Institute (RVI)

Roundtable on Race Politics, Power and Ethics in Researching Violent Extremism

15:00-16:45 (UK time) — Register →

• Dr. Fatuma Ahmed Ali, Associate Professor of International Relations at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the United States International University (Kenya)
• Professor Fionnuala Ni Aolain, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism; Regents Professor, Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society, University of Minnesota  and Professor of Law, The Queens University, Belfast 
• Professor Nicola Pratt, Professor of the International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick