Exeter College Fellow Explores Feminist Plurality in Global Peace Efforts

Professor Laura Sjoberg, Kloppenburg Official Fellow and Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Exeter College, has contributed an essay to a recent scholarly symposium on the global Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. 

Published on the academic platform The Disorder of Things, Professor Sjoberg’s piece offers a critical reading of the new book Governing the Feminist Peace. In her essay, she challenges the notion of WPS as a singular, cohesive agenda. Instead, she emphasises the multiplicity of feminist approaches to peacebuilding, arguing that academics, activists, and policymakers worldwide engage with WPS in diverse—and sometimes divergent—ways. 

Professor Sjoberg finds the book both challenging and inspiring. It captures some of her own long-held critiques of WPS but reframes them with more nuance and depth than she expected. While she is still uncertain about where her own views fit within the broad WPS ecosystem, she appreciates the book’s call to recognise the many forms of feminist peace. It makes her question whether the sense of not fitting stems from the agenda’s limits—or from her own reluctance to embrace its complexity. 

🔗 Read the full essay on The Disorder of Things: The Disorder of Things – Symposium on Governing the Feminist Peace