Over the last two decades my research has explored the relationship between American liberalism and militarism, focusing on the US military institution and global peace and security agendas. As an intersectional feminist scholar trained in American Studies, US Politics, and International Relations, I have paid particular attention to the performative aspects of gender within militarized and securitized contexts; the formation of political subjectivities through imperial ideologies of freedom and belonging; how individuals come to enable but also resist systems of military violence; and how sexual violence functions as a mode of gender governance within military and security institutions.
I have conducted ethnographic research with US soldiers and Marines, government officials, and military officers. In Kenya, my research team and I conducted research across military, private security, police, and development sectors, as well as with peacebuilding, women’s rights, and human rights organizations.
My next major research project turns to the domestic political consequences of the incoporporation and instrumentalization of difference and diversity, equity, and inclusion across the US federal government. This project foregrounds the US military institutions as a key site to understand conservative political development and the evolving relationship between difference, inclusion, and American state power. I also intend to conduct research on similar manifestations of far right political power through military institutions within European democratic states.