Dr David Duriesmith
Department of Politics and International Relations
Lecturer in Gender and Politics
Full contact details
Department of Politics and International Relations
Modular Teaching Village
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 1AJ
- Profile
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David holds a BA (2009) and PhD (2014) in international Studies from the University of Melbourne. After completing his studies, he held postdoctoral posts at the University of Melbourne (2015-2017) and the University of Queensland (2017-2020). In 2020 he joined the department as Lecturer in Gender and Politics.
David’s research explores the relationship between patriarchy, masculinities and violence from a pro-feminist perspective. He has published on preventing violence after war, men’s support for gender equality, foreign fighter networks, the transformation of war and feminist international relations theory.
- Research interests
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My research draws on feminist international relations theory and interdisciplinary critical studies on men and masculinities. There have been three main strains so far:
Masculinities and peacebuilding
My current research focuses on the politics of masculinity in sites of peacebuilding. This project looks at the ways in which masculinities shape gender-insensitive peacebuilding efforts and on the recent growth of targeted masculinities programming during peacebuilding. For this project I have conducted fieldwork in Fiji in 2018 and Aceh (Indonesia) in 2019. This research comes out of my earlier involvement with the United Nations joint programme Partners for Prevention. Early aspects of this work have been published in Peacebuilding and the LSE WPS Centre’s working paper series.
Gender in foreign fighter networks
Since 2016 I have been working with Noor Huda Ismail from the Rajaratnam School of International Studies Singapore on the role of gender in foreign fighter networks. For this research we have conducted life history interviews with Indonesian foreign fighters about their experiences of recruitment, training and disengagement. In 2019 I continued this work with the support of UN Women and UNDP to produce a report on the links between violent extremist masculinities and militarised masculinities in the Philippines. Aspects of this project have been published in International Theory, Stability, and Critical Military Studies.
The transformation of war
I completed my PhD in 2014 which examined the role of masculinity in constructing new wars. My research explores large scale conceptual problems within security with a particular emphasis on the social and structural role of gender. By examining the breakdown of relationships between groups of men in Sierra Leone and South Sudan my work found that the emergence of virulent conflict during the 1990s could be conceptualized as a form of aggressive gender politics challenging the prevailing gender order. Aspects of this work have been published in The International Feminist Journal of Politics and in my 2017 book Masculinity and New War: the gendered structure of contemporary armed conflict.
In addition to these main projects I have published on feminist international relations theory (in IFJP and Revisiting Gendered States), with Georgina Holmes from Reading University on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration/security sector reform programmes in Security Dialogue and on anti-feminist violent extremism with Shannon Zimmerman and Luisa Ryan. I have written blogposts and opinion pieces for the International Committee of the Red Cross, The Social Change Lab, Australian Outlook, Broad Agenda The Disorder of Things, and Voice Male Magazine.
- Publications
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Books
- Manly States and Feminist Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press.
- New War, Masculinity and Patriarchy The Social Construction of Contemporary Armed Conflict.
- Masculinity and New War. London: Routledge.
Journal articles
- Transforming masculinities after scandal: the response to Australia’s war crimes in Afghanistan and the possibility of change in military masculinities. Australian Journal of Political Science, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-15.
- Gendered mundanities : gender bias in student evaluations of teaching in political science. Australian Journal of Political Science.
- Masculinities and disengagement from jihadi networks: the case of Indonesian militant islamists. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.
- Embodied militarism and the process of disengagement from foreign fighter networks. Critical Military Studies, 8(1), 22-38.
- Engaging or changing men? Understandings of masculinity and change in the new ‘men, peace and security’ agenda. Peacebuilding, 8(4), 418-431.
- From ‘It rarely happens’ to ‘It’s worse for men’ : dispelling misconceptions about sexual violence against men and boys in conflict and displacement. Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, 2(3), 25-34.
- Returning to the root : radical feminist thought and feminist theories of International Relations. Review of International Studies, 46(3), 357-375. View this article in WRRO
- Friends don't let friends cite the malestream : a case for strategic silence in feminist international relations. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 22(1), 26-32. View this article in WRRO
- The masculine logic of DDR and SSR in the Rwanda Defence Force. Security Dialogue, 50(4), 361-379.
- Militarized masculinities beyond methodological nationalism: charting the multiple masculinities of an Indonesian jihadi. International Theory, 11(2), 139-159.
- Hybrid Warriors and the Formation of New War Masculinities: A Case Study of Indonesian Foreign Fighters. Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 7(1).
- Is Manhood a Causal Factor in the Shifting Nature of War?. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 16(2), 236-254.
- Locating violence-resistant masculinities in sites of conflict. Peacebuilding.
- The challenges and opportunities of researching masculinities during peace processes. Peacebuilding.
- “Between the self and the other”: Clinical presentation of male supremacy in violent extremists. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression.
Chapters
- Negative space and the feminist act of citation, Rethinking Silence, Voice and Agency in Contested Gendered Terrains (pp. 66-77). Routledge
- Masculinity, Handbook on Gender and Violence (pp. 77-88). Edward Elgar Publishing
- Negative space and the feminist act of citation: Strategic silence and the limits of gendering an unloving discipline, Rethinking Silence, Voice and Agency in Contested Gendered Terrains: Beyond the Binary (pp. 66-77).
- Memory, Trauma, and Gendered Insecurity, The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security (pp. 262-272). Routledge
- Manly states and feminist foreign policy: Revisiting the liberal state as an agent of change, Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist Imaginings of the State in International Relations (pp. 51-68).
- Building Peace with Warlords in South Sudan: A Gendered Structure, African Frontiers: Insurgency, Governance and Peacebuilding in Postcolonial States (pp. 157-166).
- Building peace with warlords in South Sudan: A gendered structure, African Frontiers: Insurgency, Governance and Peacebuilding in Postcolonial States (pp. 157-166).
- The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security Routledge
Reports
- Adaptation of Militarized Masculinity and Violent Extremism in the Southern Philippines View this article in WRRO
- Recognizing the violent extremist ideology of 'Incels'
- Manly States and Feminist Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press.
- Teaching activities
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At the University of Sheffield I teach courses related to gender and feminist perspectives on politics. Before joining the department I taught courses on security studies, peacebuilding, international relations theory, political ideas and research methods.
I currently convene the following modules:- POL122 - Gender and the World
- POL238 Oppression and Resistance
- POL6611 Feminist and Decolonizing Approaches to International Relations- Bodies, Coloniality, Knowledge.
- Supervision Expertise
- violence prevention
- gender politics
- masculinities
- civil conflict
- foreign fighters
- sexual violence and related areas.