Prof. Elisabeth Wood (May 2010)

Elisabeth Wood, the world renowned scholar, Professor of Political Science at Yale University, came to the VU University in May to discuss her research with our students and staff members. Her current research focuses on sexual violence during war. She is the author of Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 2000), as well as various scholarly articles. She previously taught at New York University (1995-2004) and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town and the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (San Salvador), and a scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (1995-1997). She is also a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and serves on the editorial boards of Politics and Society, the Contentious Politics series of Cambridge University Press, and the American Political Science Review.

Elisabeth Wood discussed her research on sexual violence with our students and staff members. The focus was on variation of sexual violence during wars. Why do some insurgent groups and some state militaries engage in widespread sexual violence against civilians, while others do not?  In this seminar students analysed patterns of sexual violence during war. They discussed the observed variation in the frequency of sexual violence on the part of armed groups compared both to other groups and to other forms of violence, as well as differences in the observed variation in targeting. Among other issues, participants focused on the puzzle posed by restraint (the relative absence of sexual violence), particularly in conflicts that are asymmetric in the sense that one party to the conflict engages in a narrow repertoire while the other does not, or targets civilians to a very limited extent while the other does so on a much wider scale. Students discussed various theoretical approaches toward explaining such variation, drawing on the recent work of the instructor. Throughout the course the policy implications of the discussion will be considered: how might actors intervene to prevent sexual violence?

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