Episode 43: 10 Questions with Dr. Yolande Bouka

10 Questions with Feminist Academics

In this series we engage 10 feminist academics around 10 questions within and across their disciplines that are important for all to consider at this historical juncture.

Bio

Dr. Yolande Bouka is the Canada Research Chair on Afrofeminist Thought and Political Transformation, and an Associate Professor of gender and politics and international relations at Queen’s University in Canada. She is also the co-director of the Research Network on Women, Peace, and Security. Prior to her academic appointment, she worked as a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division, focusing on Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Her research focuses on gender, political violence, and race and international relations. The key questions driving her multidisciplinary research agenda is how vulnerable groups and individuals understand and navigate structural and political violence and how these experiences influence the social and political landscapes of conflict-affected societies. Her current research is a multi-sited historical and political analysis of female combatants in Southern Africa. She is also finalizing her book manuscript provisionally titled In the Shadow of Prison: Transitional Justice and Carceral Politics in Africa, which, based on years of interview and archival research, explores the role of prisons and incarceration in transitional African societies looking at Rwanda as a case study. Her research has received support from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the American Association of University Women, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is the recipient of the 2021 International Studies Association (ISA) Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section (FTGS) Early Career Community Engagement Award.

Credits

Produced by: The Feminist Centre for Racial Justice

Host: Awino Okech

Sound design, editing, production: Ellan A. Lincoln Hyde

Music: Grateful by audiolibraryinfinite from Pixabay