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Absolutely thrilled to share my article on the visual politics of #WPS just published with @IAJournal_CH: '"Seeing" the Women, Peace and Security agenda: visual (re)productions of WPS in UK government national action plans' https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/96/6/1643/5957741
The article proposes a new direction for WPS scholarship. I argue that the way WPS is communicated visually, and the visual politics of WPS deserves scholarly attention, although have been overlooked in the literature. /2
Along with the racial/colonial, bureaucratic/institutional and epistemological ways in which the agenda is (re)produced, I argue that the visual is a vector of power in the (re)production of the agenda, which offers important insights for the study of WPS. /3
I explore the visual politics of UK government NAPs/annual reports to parliament as a case of visual reproduction. /4
To examine the ways WPS is communicated visually and the visual politics of WPS, I propose a methodological framework that attends to a visibility spectrum. I develop this framework drawing from the visual politics scholarship, and from feminist and postcolonial literature. /5
A visual analysis of NAPs/annual reports reveals 4 subject-positions that I argue are gendered and racialised in different ways, and which I place on a visibility spectrum. /6
These are: the (hypervisible) ‘agential woman-in-conflict’, the (absent presence) of the ‘woman-as-victim’, the (visibility) of the ‘international community’, and the (invisibility) of ‘men and boys’. /7
The analysis demonstrates how these mutually constituted subjects reproduce particular gendered, racialized and colonial logics and hierarchies. /8
There was a lot of brilliant work that helped me develop these – still unfinished and incomplete – ideas/arguments... /9
Recent works on WPS from which I have learnt so much include @PaulCinnam0n and @drljshepherd article on the policy ecosystem of WPS; @asante_doris and @drljshepherd article on WPS and P/CVE; @AikoIiris and @DrAudreyReeves work on WPS and the 'refugee crisis' /10
@hannahlwright article on masculinity/WPS; @swatipash work on the colonial politics of WPS; @ToniHaastrup and @Jamiejhagen chapter on WPS and global hierarchies. /11
Beyond the WPS scholarship, @JuliaWelland excellent article 'Violence and the contemporary soldiering body' which introduced me to the work of Julianne Pidduck and Teresa de Lauretis helped develop the visual methodology https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0967010617733355/9. /12
Shout-out/gratitude to @JuliaWelland @ncpratt @MeeraSabaratnam and B.Martill who generously gave comments, @drljshepherd who swooped in (fairy godmother style) last minute to offer sage advice/comments when I was ready to give up. And, IA for a v.positive review experience.Enjoy!
