Elizabeth Mesok is a feminist theorist focusing on issues pertaining to war, security, and peace. Based in Basel, Switzerland, her work speaks to the global instrumentalization of feminist rhetoric for the continuation of militarism and the expansion of international security structures.
She received an MA in Political Science in 2007 from New York University (NYU) and a PhD in 2013 in American Studies from the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. Trained in political theory, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, and critical race and ethnic studies, Mesok brings such interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on political science and international relations. After completing her PhD, Mesok held a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University. From 2015-2016, she held a Visiting Assistant Professorship in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. After relocating to Switzerland, Mesok held a position as a senior researcher and program officer at swisspeace, a peacebuilding organization in Bern. While working at the intersection of policy-oriented research and peacebuilding practice, Mesok’s commitment to academic research deepened, and she returned to academia as a Swiss National Science Foundation PRIMA Fellow after winning a highly competitive, 1.3 million CHF (1.4 million USD), five-year career grant. She holds this grant (2020-2025) at the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Basel, where she leads the Gender, War and Security Research Group and is the PI on the project, “Gendered Security Strategies: How Gender Matters in the Policy and Practice of Countering Violent Extremism.” This project is a critical feminist ethnographic research study focused on the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) agenda in Kenya, with studies in additional contexts including the U.S., Somalia, and Bangladesh.