Director's Page

Dr. Carol Cohn is the Director of the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Carol is a leader in the scholarly community addressing issues of gender in global politics generally, armed conflict and security.

Dr. Cohn's research and writing has focused on gender and security issues ranging from work on the discourse of civilian defense intellectuals to gender integration issues in the US military, weapons of mass destruction, and the gender dimensions of contemporary armed conflicts.

In her most recent research, supported by the Ford Foundation, Dr. Cohn examines gender mainstreaming in international peace and security institutions. Within this research program, a central focus is the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the on-going efforts to ensure its implementation at the international, national, and grassroots levels. 

Dr. Cohn's work has been published in a number of arenas in both the academic and policy world. Representative publications include:

• "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 12, no. 4 (Summer 1987).
• A paper for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission head by Dr. Hans Blix, “The Relevance of Gender for Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction” (with Felicity Hill and Sara Ruddick), also published in Disarmament Diplomacy, issue no. 80, Autumn 2005.
• "Slick 'ems, Glick 'ems, Christmas Trees, and Cookie Cutters: Nuclear Language and How We Learned to Pat the Bomb," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 1987.
• "Wars, Wimps, and Women: Talking Gender and Thinking War" in Gendering War Talk, edited by Miriam Cooke and Angela Woollacott (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).
• "A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe: Feminists look at Masculinity and Men Who Wage War," Signs vol. 28, no.4, p.1187-1207 (2003).
• “A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction,” (with Sara Ruddick) In Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Religious and Secular Perspectives, eds. Sohail H. Hashmi and Steven P. Lee (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
• “Motives and Methods: Using Multi-Cited Ethnography to Study National Security Discourses,” in Feminist Methodologies for International Relations, eds. Brooke Ackerly and Jacqui True, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
• "'How can She Claim Equal Rights When She Doesn't Have to Do as Many Pushups as I Do?': The Framing of Men's Opposition to Women's Equality in the Military," Men and Masculinities, vol. 3, no.2 (October 2000).
• "Gays in the Military: Texts and Subtexts," in The "Man Question" in International Relations, edited by Marysia Zalewski and Jane Parpart (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
• “Women, Peace and Security: Resolution 1325," (with Helen Kinsella and Sheri Gibbings) International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 6, no. 1 (March 2004).
• “Feminist Peacemaking,” The Women’s Review of Books, vol. XXI, no.5 (February 2004), pp. 8-9.
•  "Mainstreaming Gender in UN Security Policy: A Path to Political Transformation?" in Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives, eds. Shirin M. Rai and Georgina Waylen (London: Palgrave, forthcoming 2008).

In addition to her research, Dr. Cohn conducts training and workshops on 1325 and consults on gender mainstreaming and gender and organizational change. This work includes including a series of workshops at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), designed to help DPKO headquarters staff develop an Action Plan for implementing 1325 and mainstreaming gender in peacekeeping operations. Dr. Cohn has led other workshops on implementing 1325 for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; with women leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Melanesia, and Kosovo/a; and with the Iraqi Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights.

Dr. Cohn has worked actively with the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security since 2001, and the Boston Consortium has been a member of the Working Group since 2005. Dr. Cohn is now working with the Social Science Research Council to design a Global Centre for Research on Gender, Crisis Prevention and Recovery for the United Nations Development Programme.

In addition to her research and policy consulting, Dr. Cohn is deeply committed to teaching in the area of gender and global security. She came to the position as Director of the Consortium after twenty years of teaching at the college and university level. Most recently, Dr. Cohn offered a course with Gordana Rabreovic and Lisa Rivera for the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies on Gender, Armed Conflict, and Peacemaking. She currently serves as a mentor for undergraduate and graduate students through the Boston Consortium internship program, and as an advisor to graduate students at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Additionally, Dr. Cohn has published in the area of pedagogy, including:

• “Globalizing Women’s Studies: Pitfalls and Possibilities,” The International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 1, no. 2, (October 1999), pp. 257-283.

• “Epilogue: Reflections in Six Voices,”  The International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 1, no. 2, (October 1999), pp. 284-293.

• Women and Wars, Carol Cohn and Laura Sjoberg, eds., (London: Polity Press, forthcoming)

Dr. Cohn is a founding member of the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights. Her vision for the Consortium is as a go-to location for scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners interested in learning and teaching about gender and security. The Consortium relies on the assistance of friends in a number of capacities. First, it is a collaborative scholarly venture; a conversation between people with similar interests and different expertise. Second, it is a research project funded by individuals and foundations with like minds and an interest in the advancement of the study of gender, security and human rights. Third, it aims to provide its members with as much various and up-to-date information as possible, which it can only do with your help. The Boston Consortium is always grateful for diverse participation, contribution, and conversation.

Dr. Cohn can be reached at carol.cohn@genderandsecurity.org for questions, comments, and support.