Dr. Yolande Bouka is an Assistant Professor of gender and politics and international relations at Queen’s University in Canada. She is the co-director of the MINDS-funded 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 a co-investigator on a project exploring the micro-dynamics of political protests in Africa and on project comparing how regional organization such as NATO, ASEAN, and the African Union implement the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. 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.