Search

Search

Course syllabus Gender, Security and War

Swedish name: Genus, säkerhet och krig

Course code:
2KR023
Valid from semester:
Education cycle:
Second cycle
Scope:
7.5 credits
Progression:
A1N
Grading scale:
Three-grade scale
Main field of study:
War Studies
Department:
Department of War Studies and Military History
Subject:
War Studies
Language of instruction:
The teaching is conducted in English.
Decided by:
Forsknings och utbildningsnämndens kursplaneutskott
Decision date:
2022-01-01

Entry requirements

Accepted to the Master's Programme in Politics and War. For freestanding course: Bachelor of Science Degree in Military Studies or Bachelor's degree worth 180 credits, of which 90 credits are in war studies or equivalent.

Course content and structure

This course focuses on the field of Feminist Security Studies, which explores the relationships between gender (and other intersecting oppressions, such as race) and security. It asks questions about the gendered nature of security and war, both in terms of how gender norms shape war and security as well as how war and security in turn reshape gender norms. To introduce student to this body of feminist literature, the course focuses on four main areas: How have feminists and other critical scholars challenged what security means or should mean? What happens when we study political violence while also paying attention to femininities and masculinities? What do we find out about conscription, privatization, or civil-military relations when we ask feminist questions about soldiers and militaries? How has feminist activism, exemplified in the adoption of the so-called women, peace & security agenda at the United Nations, changed global security environments? Students will learn the tools to carry out their own analyses of security and war from a gender perspective. The course illustrates the theoretical discussion through practical examples taken from feminist research on current violent conflicts around the world. Instruction includes lectures and mandatory seminars.

Type of Instruction
Seminars

Lectures

Objectives

After completing the course, the student is expected to be able to:

Knowledge and understanding
  • explain how conceptions of gender affect security and war, with a particular focus on how gender norms shape institutions and practices and how these, in turn, affect gender norms.

Competence and skills
  • critically evaluate key arguments and statements from the feminist literature on security and war;
  • analyze and problematize contemporary wars and warfare by applying feminist perspectives.

Examination formats

Examination
Scope: 7.5

Grading Scale: Fail, Pass, Pass with Distinction

Assessment takes place through active and constructive participation in mandatory seminars and an independent written assignment.

The examiner may decide to allow submission of a supplementary assignment to make up for an absence orshortcomingsin active and constructive participation in mandatory seminars. After announcement of the supplemental task, the student hasthree working daysforsupplementation, unlessspecialcircumstances exist that are acceptable to the examiner.

The examiner may decide to allow supplementation in order to achieve a passing grade. Examination paperssubmitted after the deadline will not be graded unlessspecialcircumstances exist that are acceptable to the examiner. After announcement of the supplemental task, the student hasthree daysforsupplementation, unlessspecialcircumstances exist that are acceptable to the examiner.

If a student has a decision from the Swedish Defence University regarding special educationalsupport due to a disability, the examiner may decide on alternative forms of examination for the student.

Grading
Grades are set according to a three-grade scale: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass(G) and Fail (U). Grading criteria are specified by no later than the start of the course.

To earn the grade Pass(G), the student must earn a grade of Pass on the written assignment, actively and constructively participate in the mandatory seminars, and earn a grade of Pass on the oral presentation.

To earn the grade Pass with Distinction (VG), the student must earn a grade of Pass with Distinction on the written assignment, actively and constructively participate in the mandatory seminars, and earn a grade of Pass on the oral presentation.

Restrictions in Number of Examinations 
There is no limit on the total number of examination opportunities.

Transitional provisions

When a course is no longer provided or when the content of a course has been significantly altered, the student has the right to be examined in accordance with this course syllabus once per semester over a period of three semesters.

Other regulations

The course cannot be part of a degree with other course whose content matches the content of this course in whole or in part.

The course is given as an elective course within the Master's Programme in Politics and War. It can also be given as a freestanding course. The course may be given in whole or in part in English.

If a student has a decision from the Swedish Defence University on special educational support due to a disability, the examiner may decide on alternative forms of examination for the student.

On the completion of the course, an evaluation will be conducted under the auspices of the course director, which will form the basis for any changes to the course.

This is an edited version of the syllabus, created to transfer the original to the education database Ladok education planning. For originals, refer to the archive.
Reading list decided date: 2025-12-19
Anctil Avoine, P. (2022). Insurgent peace research: affects, friendship and feminism as methods. Conflict, Security & Development, 22(5), 435–455.
Anctil Avoine, P. 2024. “Farianas’ Insurgent Feminism: For a Militant, Affective and Embodied Reincorporation in Colombia”. European Journal of Politics and Gender: 1–26.
Axyonova, Vera & Katsiaryna Lozka (2023). "‘We are at War’: Reflections on Positionality and Research as Negotiation in Post-2022 Ukraine". Journal of International Relations and Development.
Baines, Erin. (2015). “‘Today, I Want to Speak Out the Truth’: Victim Agency, Responsibility, and Transitional Justice”, International Political Sociology, 9(4): 316–332.
Basu, Soumita (2016). The Global South Writes 1325 (Too). International Political Science Review 37(3): 362-74.
Berg, Elin. (2024). From silence to Pride? A feminist visual narrative analysis of the Swedish Armed Forces’ Pride campaigns. Media, War & Conflict.
Berry, M. E., & Lake, M. (2025). Art as an antidote to violence. Security Dialogue, Online First. 1-17.
Berry, Marie. (2015). “From Violence to Mobilization: Women, War and Threat in Rwanda”. Mobilization 20(2): 135-156.
Cockburn, Cynthia (2004). “The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace.” In Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones, edited by W. Giles and J. Hyndman, 24–44. University of California Press.

Cockburn, Cynthia (2010) “Gender Relations as Causal in Militarization and War” International Feminist Journal of Politics 12(2): 139-157.
Cohn, Carol (2012). Women and wars: Toward a conceptual framework. In: Carol Cohn, ed. Women & Wars (pp. 1-35). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R.W. (1995) “The Social Organization of Masculinity” In Masculinities. Berkeley: Berkeley University Press.
Duriesmith, David (2019) “Engaging or changing men? Understandings of masculinity and change in the new ’men, peace and security’ agenda” Peacebuilding 8 (4): 418-431.
Hagen, Jamie, Ritholtz, Samuel and Andrew Delatolla. (2024). “Introduction: telling Queer Stories of Conflict” in Hagen, Ritholtz and Delatolla (eds) Queer Conflict Research: New Approaches to the Study of Political Violence. Bristol University Press: 1-15.
Hedström, Jenny. 2025. “Introduction” and “Women’s Military Conscription in Kachinland”. In Reproducing Revolution : Women’s Labor and the War in Kachinland (pp. 1-27 and 61-75). Cornell University Press.
Kirby, Paul & Laura J. Shepherd (2016) “The Futures Past of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda” International Affairs 92 (2): 373-392.
Kwon, Insook (2000) “A Feminist Exploration of Military Conscription: The Gendering of Connections between Nationalism, Militarism and Citizenship in South Korea” International Feminist Journal of Politics 3 (1): 26-54.
Marhia, Natasha (2013) “Some humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the ‘human’ in human security from a critical feminist perspective” Security Dialogue 44 (1): 19-35.
Martín de Almagro, M., Zulver, J. M., Anctil Avoine, P., Tapias Torrado, N. R., & Berry, M. (2024). Doing Feminist Research on Conflict, Violence and Peace: Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas. Millennium, 53(1), 249-275.
Nieto-Valdivieso, Yoana Fernanda. 2017. “The Joy of the Militancy: Happiness and the Pursuit of Revolutionary Struggle”. Journal of Gender Studies 26(1): 78–90.
O’Sullivan, Mi´la & Kater?ina Krulis?ova´ (2023). "Central European Subalterns Speak Security (too): Towards a Truly Post-Western Feminist Security Studies.” Journal of International Relations and Development 26: 660-674.
Otto, Diane (2010). Power and Danger: Feminist Engagement with International Law through the UN Security Council. Australian Feminist Law Journal 32 (1): 97-121.
Ritholtz, Samuel (2024). “Brutality on Display: media coverage and the spectacle of anti-LGBTQ violence in the Colombian Civil War. Third World Quarterly 45(5): 903-925.
Schulz, Philipp & Heleen Touquet (2020). “Queering Explanatory Frameworks for Wartime Sexual Violence against Men.” International Affairs 96(5): 1169– 1187.
Stachowitsch, Saskia (2013) “Military privatization and the remasculinization of the state: Making the link between the outsourcing of military security and gendered state transformations” International Relations 27(1): 74-94.
Viterna, Jocelyn S. 2006. “Pulled, Pushed, and Persuaded: Explaining Women’s Mobilization into the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army”. American Journal of Sociology 112(1): 1–45.
Wibben, Annick T.R. (2016) Introduction: Feminists study war. In Annick T.R. Wibben, ed. Researching War: Feminist Methods, Ethics & Politics (pp. 1-16). London: Routledge.
Wibben, Annick T.R. (2018) Why we need to study (US) militarism: A critical feminist lens” Security Dialogue 49(1-2) 136–148.
Zamanov, R. (2025). State violence and queer identities: experiences from the Azerbaijani military. Critical Military Studies, 1–23.
Zulver, Julia. 2021. “The Endurance of Women’s Mobilization during Patriarchal Backlash: A Case from Colombia’s Reconfiguring Armed Conflict.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 23 (3): 440–462.
Total number of pages: 603

Additional texts of a maximum of 100 pages may be added.