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Maria Stern
Professor
School of Global StudiesAbout Maria Stern
I am Professor in Peace and Development Studies at the School of Global Studies (SGS). I hold a B.A. in Political Science (Cornell University, USA) and a Ph.D. in Peace and Development Studies from the University of Gothenburg.
My work focuses on the question of violence in relation to security, warring, militarism, development, peace, identity and belonging, coloniality and sex. I explore these subjects through a feminist lens that seeks to recognize intersecting relations of power, and that is attuned to the politics of methodology. I have published in a variety of journals and publishing houses, enjoy the collaborative process of co-authorship, and have served as editor/associate editor at Security Dialogue for many years.
Research Interests
My research interests are in global politics/ International Relations widely defined, including feminist theory, critical security studies, critical war and military studies, the sociology and politics of violence, connections between security, development and peace, International Political Sociology, Post Colonial theory, and qualitative methodology and methods.
My current research projects include (in order of most recent to least recent):
“Prepping’ for Security in Sweden?” , funded by the Swedish Research Council. The research team includes: Maria Stern PI (GU), Richard Georgi (GU), Bart Klem (GU), Christine Agius (Swinburne University of Technology, Australien), Anja Frank (GU), Richard Georgi (GU), Simon Turner (Lund University).
During the Covid pandemic, people in Sweden and around the world not only hoarded food and essential items, they also took 'prepping' courses, joined self-declared survivalist groups, and consumed 'prepping' merchandise in record numbers. Since then, concerns about imminent disasters did not abate, but spread widely, also in part encouraged by the state. ‘Prepping’, broadly understood as the practice by which the anticipation of calamity prompts individuals and communities to prepare ways to mitigate or adapt to insecurity, has moved to the center of debates around societal security and preparedness, but thus far received comparatively little scholarly attention. Focusing on the Swedish context, marked by an active prepper scene amid multiple scenarios of insecurity, our project aims to understand the phenomenon of prepping and what it tells us about how societal security and preparedness are being imagined and practiced, and by whom. Based on a multi-method, qualitative design, we trace historical developments, map out the diversity of the prepping boom in Sweden, and study four different types of prepping practices in-depth. By taking the perspectives of preppers seriously, we inquire into the identities and motivations, ideologies, threat scenarios and anticipated futures that drive the contemporary prepping boom. The insights of our research are not only relevant for scholarship in Sweden and beyond, but also support closing an information gap for security policies.
Sex, Violence, Sexual Violence? Interrogating Lines of Distinction in War and Peace” , funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbanken) Sweden. The research team includes: Maria Stern (PI) (GU), Maria Eriksson Baaz, Swedish National Defense College/ University of Uppsala, Sara Stendahl (GU), and with Susanne Aldén (Linköping University).
Sexual violence (SV) occurs in both peace and war. Yet, there are both tacit and explicit understandings in scholarship, policy and in jurisprudence that conflict-related SV (CRSV) and SV in peacetime settings differ significantly. In peacetime, the absence of consent determines when violence has occurred, who has been harmed and how, and who shall be held accountable. By contrast, war is seen as a ‘coercive environment’ in which consensual sexual relations between enemy combatants and civilians are impossible. Yet, there are many ’grey zones’ that problematize clear divisions between war and peace, coercion and consent, violence and sex. This project bridges scholarship on SV addressing peacetime settings with scholarship on CRSV and continuums of violence by exploring how lines of distinction between sex/violence are being drawn in different sites. It asks: how is SV delineated from sex in contemporary legal and everyday settings that span both peace and wartime? To answer this, we will: 1) analyze legal texts in Sweden, the DR Congo as well as International Law 2) explore two ‘grey zones’, one in a peacetime and one in a ‘wartime’ setting, in which the lived experiences of people problematize tidy distinctions between sex and violence: people who practice BDSM in Sweden (peace); civilians who have sexual relations with ’enemy’ combatants in the DRC (war). Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to better recognizing and preventing the harms of SV—in both war and peace.
“Building ‘Graveyard Peace’? An inside-out perspective on the violent legacies of five years of peacebuilding in Colombia.” (PI), funded by the Swedish Research Council. The research team includes: Maria Stern (PI) (GU), Richard Georgi (GU), Bart Klem (GU), Miguel Baretto Henriquez (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia).
The building of peace, ideally, should be a means for ending violence. Yet, the current Colombian peace process is only the most recent example of how peacebuilding projects—even context-sensitive, inclusive, and homegrown ones—occur not only amidst violence, but are also deeply entangled in, or productive of, continuing violence. We draw on the Colombian case to better understand this fundamental aspect of the lingering crisis of peacebuilding as it plays out on the ground in the institutionalized and granular practice of building peace. Our project aims to analyse how and why peacebuilding has itself become a conflict dynamic through exploring the question: how and why have Colombian peacebuilding interventions aggravated societal conflicts and spurred political violence? We adopt an ‘inside-out’ perspective, tapping the experiences of peacebuilders who have worked in, or in close cooperation with the institutional infrastructure designed by the 2016 peace agreement. Taking the wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight of Colombian peace professionals as its central vantage point, this project produces backstage insights into how a peace drawn on paper is practiced, and how these practices may produce unintended, conflict-aggravating effects. The insights of our research collaborators, largely absent from the reports of monitoring research institutions, also build the foundation of a wider dialogue that we facilitate among peacebuilding experts in the Global South.
“The essential dilemmas of long-term peacebuilding: the cases of Cambodia and Mozambique.” funded by the Swedish Research Council. The research team includes: Joakim Öjendal (PI) (GU), Maria Stern (GU), Adriano Malache (PhD Student, GU).
The aim of this project is to pursue in-depth research of two well-documented and “successful” cases and thus both address the long-term effects of intensive peacebuilding and identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in its implementation. It will contribute explicitly to the contemporary shift in peacebuilding policy towards a more contextual, human-oriented, and inclusive approach that takes into account the lessons learned regarding the long-term processes instigated by peacebuilding interventions. The project, therefore, interrogates the trajectory of peacebuilding through a historical analysis as well as a contemporary one. Our central research problem is: What, given the long trajectory of peacebuilding initiatives and their implementation, does not work and why in Cambodia and Mozambique? We focus on these two cases because there has been a curiously similar development and timing in the two cases. In both sites, we will seek to identify the provenance of the recent tensions (which are jeopardising peace and stability). Particular research questions are theoretically and conceptually driven. They focus on long-term dilemmas of peacebuilding; the dynamics of ex/inclusion; the significance of grounding peace with the population; and, the possibility of adaptive peacebuilding.
“Sexual Violence Along the War-Peace Continuum.” funded by the Swedish Research Council. The research team includes: Swati Parashar (PI) (GU), Maria Eriksson Baaz, Swedish National Defense College/ University of Uppsala, Maria Stern (GU).
Despite the well-established notion that sexual and gender-based violence runs along a continuum, there is little empirically based scholarship that explores how peacetime rape and wartime rape differ and/or are similar. Does it matter to the ways we understand, prevent and redress the harms of rape that some occur in zones of relative peace, and some in zones of active armed conflict? Indeed, there has been a marked divergence in the explanatory frames for explaining rape in peacetime in relation to wartime rape among scholars and advocates alike. In this project, we address this question through in-depth studies of the forms, contexts and logics of sexual violence in four different sites, two of which are clearly deeply entrenched warzones (Uvira Provence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kashmir, in India) and two that are characterized by long-time peaceful relations and the lack of armed conflict (Mai-Ndombe in the DRC and South Delhi, India). Drawing on the uniquely grounded experience of the investigators, the project will thus produce novel insights on the continuum and non-continuum of sexual violence between war and peace. In addition to providing original empirical data on how the forms, contexts and logics of sexual violence differ and converge by collecting original data in two countries (the DRC and India), it also seeks to enhance our understanding of the frames that limits our abilities/willingness to note and address continuances of violence.
Teaching and Advising
I enjoy over thirty years experience in teaching, and have taught and advised extensively at all levels of education (B.A, Masters and PhD). Most of my teaching has been in International Relations, however I have also taught in Peace and Development Studies more broadly, Global Studies, Global Development Studies, Political Science, and Gender Studies. I have taught in Spain, Rwanda, and Norway. I have been involved in developing school-wide methods and research design courses at all levels of education. I have also worked extensively in course curriculum and program development at all levels of education, Most recently I co-directed the development and establishment of a three-year international Bachelor’s Program in International Relations (in English), which was successfully launched at GU in 2021.
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The Aspirational Promise of Soldiering: An Analysis of Military Recruitment
Testimonials
Maria Stern, Sanna Strand
Critical Military Studies - 2023 -
Securing development, developing
security?
Maria Stern
Security Studies: Critical Perspectives, edited by Xavier Guillaume and Kyle Grayson - 2023 -
Conflict Related Sexual Violence against
Men
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Gender and Violence against Political Actors Edited by Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg - 2023 -
Introduction: Feminist IR in Europe: Knowledge Production in Academic
Institutions
Maria Stern, Ann Towns
Feminist IR in Europe Knowledge Production in Academic Institutions - 2022 -
Feminist IR in Europe: Knowledge Production in Academic
Institutions
Maria Stern, Ann Towns
2022 -
Race and racism in critical security
studies
Mark Salter, Emily Gilbert, Jairus Grove, Jana Hönke, Doerthe Rosenow, Anna Stavrianakis, Maria Stern
Security Dialogue - 2021 -
Introduction–Peacebuilding Amidst
Violence
Joakim Öjendal, Jan Bachmann, Maria Stern, Hanna Leonardsson
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding - 2021 -
Sexuellt våld och ett kontinuum mellan krig och
fred
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Swati Parashar, Maria Stern
Feministiska perspektiv på global politik, edited by Emil Edenborg, Sofie Tornhill and Cecilia Åse. - 2021 -
Mothers ‘Falling Down’: Surviving the Ruin of Living through Rage and
Laughter
Anja K. Franck, Maria Stern
European International Studies Association, 13-17 Sept, 2021 - 2021 -
Peacebuilding Amidst
Violence
-
Torture and sexual violence in war and conflict: The unmaking and remaking of subjects of
violence
Harriet Gray, Maria Stern, Chris Dolan
Review of International Studies - 2020 -
Populisms in the Age of
(anti)Globalizations
Swati Parashar, Maria Stern
Blogal Studies - 2020 -
What is sexual about conflict-related sexual violence? Stories from men and women
survivors
Chris Dolan, Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
International Affairs - 2020 -
Courageously critiquing sexual violence: responding to the 2018 Nobel Peace
Prize
Maria Stern
International Affairs - 2019 -
Peace through Security-Development:
Nebulous Connections, Desirable
Confluences?
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
In Toje and Bard (eds), The Causes of Peace: What We Now Know - 2019 -
Risky dis/entanglements: Torture and sexual violence in
conflict
Harriet Gray, Maria Stern
European Journal of International Relations - 2019 -
Horizon Scan: Critical security studies for the next 50
years
Maria Stern
Security Dialogue - 2019 -
Sexual Violence Against Men in Global
Politics
Marysia Zalewski, Paula Drummond, Elisabeth Prugl, Maria Stern
2018 -
What Can We/Do We Want to Know? Reflections from Researching SGBV in Military
Settings
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Harriet Gray, Maria Stern
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - 2018 -
Knowing Masculinities in Armed Conflict?: Reflections from Research in the Democratic Republic of
Congo
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
The Oxford handbook of gender and conflict / edited by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Naomi Cahn, Dina Francesca Haynes and Nahla Valji. - 2018 -
Curious erasures: the sexual in wartime sexual
violence
Maria Stern, Maria Eriksson Baaz
International feminist journal of politics - 2018 -
Introduction: sexual violence against men in global
politics
Maria Stern, Marysia Zalewski, Paula Drummond, Elisabeth Prugl
Zalewski M., Drumond P., Prugl E., Stern M. (eds) Sexual Violence Against Men in Global Politics - 2018 -
Special issue on Militarism and security: Dialogue, possibilities and
limits
Anna Stavrianakis, Maria Stern
Security Dialogue - 2018 -
Militarism and security: Dialogue, possibilities and
limits
Anna Stavrianakis, Maria Stern
Security Dialogue - 2018 -
Feminist Global Political Economy and Feminist Security Studies? The Politics of Delineating
Subfields.
Maria Stern
Politics & Gender - 2017 -
Being reformed: Subjectification and security sector reform in the Congolese armed
forces
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding - 2017 -
Debating (Wartime) Sexual Violence: THE ADDED VALUE OF ‘FETISHIZATION’?: INTRIGUING PROMISES YET
UNFULFILLED
Harriet Gray, Maria Stern
International Studies Quarterly - 2017 -
Säkerhet och
säkerhetspolitik?
Maria Stern
Om krig och fred: en introduktion till freds och konfliktstudier - 2017 -
Researching wartime rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A methodology of
unease
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Wibben, A. (ed.) Researching War: Feminist Methods, Ethics and Politics - 2016 -
Feminist International Political Sociology – International Political Sociology
Feminism
Maria Stern
in Xavier Guillaume and Pinar Bilgin (eds.), Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology, New York: Routledge. - 2016 -
Security Outsourcing and Critical Feminist Inquiry: Taking Stock and looking
Forward
Maria Stern
in Joakim Berndtsson and Cristopher Kinsey, The Routledge Research Companion to Security Outsourcing - 2016 -
Poststructural Feminisms in
IR
Maria Stern
in Jill Steans and Daniela Tepe-Belfrage (eds), Handbook on Gender in World Politics, Edward Elgar Publishing. - 2016 -
How should one
teach?
J. K. Roth, E. von Joeden-Forgey, A. Alvarez, Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern, A. Peto, P. R. Bartrop, R. Skloot
Teaching About Rape in War and Genocide - 2016 -
Why
teach?
C. Rittner, E. Verdeja, E. von Joeden-Forgey, H. Slim, Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern, H. C. Theriault
Teaching About Rape in War and Genocide - 2016 -
Private Security Guards: Authority, Control and
Governance?
Joakim Berndtsson, Maria Stern
Routledge Handbook of Private Security Studies (eds. Rita Abrahamsen and Anna Leander) - 2016 -
Research in the Rape Capital of the World: Fame and
Shame
Maria Stern, Maria Eriksson Baaz
Masquerades of War - 2015 -
A Decade of Feminist Security Studies Revisited: Editors'
Introduction
Maria Stern, Annick Wibben
Security Dialogue - 2015 -
Telling Perpetrator’s stories: a reflection on effects and
ethics
Maria Stern, Maria Eriksson Baaz
Teaching About Rape in War and Genocide - 2015 -
Studying reform of/in/by the National Armed Forces in the
DRC
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Studying the Agency of Being Governed. Edited by Stina Hansson, Sofie Hellberg, Maria Stern - 2014 -
Understanding Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict
Settings
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
The SAGE Handbook of Feminist Theory - 2014 -
Studying the Agency of Being
Governed
Stina Hansson, Sofie Hellberg, Maria Stern
2014 -
Studying the Agency of Being Governed:
Introduction
Maria Stern, Sofie Hellberg, Stina Hansson
Studying the Agency of Being Governed - 2014 -
Fearless Fighters and Submissive Wives: Negotiating Identity among Women Soldiers in the Congo
(DRC)
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Armed forces and society - 2013 -
The Gendered Subject of Violence in African
Conflicts
Maria Stern, Maria Eriksson Baaz
Routledge Handbook of African Security - 2013 -
Willing Reform? An Analysis of Defence Reform Intitiatives in the
DRC
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Globalization and Development: Rethinking Interventions and Governance, Bigsten (ed.) - 2013 -
Maskulinitet och sexualiserat våld i krig och
fred
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
Internationella relationer - könskritiska perspektiv. Paulina de los Reyes, Maud Eduards, Fia Sundevall (red.) - 2013 -
Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War? Perceptions, Prescriptions, Problems in the Congo and
Beyond
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
2013 -
Sweden: public servants from the private
sector
Joakim Berndtsson, Maria Stern
Commercialising security in Europe : political consequences for peace and reconciliation operations / edited by Anna Leander. - 2013 -
Beyond Militarized Masculinity: the case of the
DRC
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
2012 -
‘The Scripting of Private Jessica Lynch: Biopolitics, Gender, and the "Feminization" of the US Military’, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 2005, 30,
25–53.
Veronique Pin-Fat, Maria Stern
Critical Security Studies, Volume I: Defining Security (Critical Concepts in Military, Strategic and Security Studies), Columba Peoples and Nick Vaughan-Williams eds. - 2012 -
Säkerhet och
säkerhetspolitik
Maria Stern
Aggestam, Karin & Höglund, Kristine (red.), 2012, Om krig och fred. En introduktion till freds- och konfliktstudier, s. 335 - 2012 -
Mapping security-development: A question of
methodology?
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
Security Dialogue - 2011 -
Exploring the Security–Development
Nexus
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
The Security-Development Nexus: Peace, Conflict and Development. Amer, R., Swain, A., Öjendal, J. (eds.) - 2011 -
Mapping Security–Development: A Question of
Methodology?
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
Security Dialogue - 2011 -
Racism, sexism, classism and much more: reading security-identity in marginalized
sites
Maria Stern
Feminist international relations : critical concepts in international relations / edited by Christine Sylvester - 2011 -
Private Security and the Public–Private Divide: Contested Lines of Distinction and Modes of Governance in the Stockholm-Arlanda Security
Assemblage
Joakim Berndtsson, Maria Stern
International Political Sociology - 2011 -
WHORES, MEN, AND OTHER MISFITS: UNDOING ‘FEMINIZATION’ IN THE ARMED FORCES IN THE
DRC
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
African Affairs - 2011 -
Gender and race in the European security strategy: Europe as a ‘force for
good’?
Maria Stern
Journal of International Relations and Development - 2011 -
Security Dialogue Special Issue on The Security-Development Nexus Revisited / Guest Editors: Maria Stern and Joakim
Öjendal
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
Security Dialogue - 2010 -
The Complexity of Violence: A critical analysis of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC)
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
2010 -
Mapping the Security—Development Nexus: Conflict, Complexity, Cacophony,
Convergence?
Maria Stern, Joakim Öjendal
Security Dialogue - 2010 -
Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo
(DRC)
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
International Studies Quarterly - 2009 -
Feminist fatigue(s): reflections on feminism and familiar fables of
militarisation
Maria Stern, Marysia Zalewski
Review of International Studies - 2009 -
Den kvinnliga terroristen — anomali, offer eller
feminist?
Maria Stern
Tvärsnitt, Vetenskapsrådet - 2008 -
Making sense of violence: voices of soldiers in the Congo
(DRC)
Maria Eriksson Baaz, Maria Stern
The Journal of Modern African Studies - 2008 -
'We' the Subject: The Power and Failure of
(In)Security
Maria Stern
Security Dialogue - 2006 -
Feminist methodologies for international
relations
Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, Jacqui True
2006 -
Editors'
conclusion
Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, Jacqui True
Ackerly, B., Stern, M. and True, J. (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations - 2006 -
Racism, sexism, classism and much more: Reading security-identity in marginalized
sites
Maria Stern
Ackerly, B., Stern, M. and True, J. (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations - 2006 -
Feminist methodologies for International
Relations
Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, Jacqui True
Ackerly, B., Stern, M. and True, J. (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations - 2006 -
Gender and armed
conflict
Maria Stern, Malin Nystrand
2006 -
The scripting of private Jessica Lynch - biopolitics, gender and the 'feminization' of the U.S.
military
Maria Stern, Véronique Pin-Fat
Alternatives: global, local, political (Lynne Rienner Publishers) - 2005 -
Naming security - constructing identity : 'Mayan-women' in Guatemala on the eve of
'peace'
Maria Stern
2005 -
Naming in/security - constructing identity: 'Mayan-women' in Guatemala in the eve of
'peace'
Maria Stern
2001 -
Reading Mayan Women´s
In/Security
Maria Stern
International Journal of Peace Studies:. - 1998 -
In/securing identities - an exploration: Ethnic and gender identities, among Maya women in
Guatemala
Maria Stern
Anales [Instituto Ibero Americano, Universidad de Gotemburgo] - 1998 -
Contextualizing In/Security: The Political Identity 'Mayan-Woman' in
Guatemala
Maria Stern
Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift - 1997 -
Reading the Project, Global Civilization: Challenges for Sovereignty, Democracy and
Security
Maria Stern
Futures - 1993 -
Security policy in transition: Sweden after the cold
war
Maria Stern
1991