junior research fellow, nEW COLLEGE, uNIVERSITY OF oXFORD
tessa DEVEREAUX
I am the Herbert Nicholas Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford and received my PhD in Political Science from Cornell University in 2024. My research interests include civil war, gender politics, rebel governance and state-building, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, I examine how rebel groups reshape local gender relations as a strategy of local control during conflict. I am also working on a series of projects on the legacies of insurgency and human rights after war. My research is supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar award and a USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholarship.
Book PROJECT
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: THE DETERMINANTS OF INSURGENT GENDER POLITICS
Interfering in community norms is a risky strategy for a leader in any situation. The precarity of civil conflict seems a particularly inopportune time to do so. Yet rebel groups frequently embark upon sweeping social reforms in the territories they control, challenging deeply embedded norms regarding marriage, kinship and reproduction. Why would rebel groups devote precious time and energy on such high-risk behavior? In order to investigate this puzzle I combine historical case studies with an original dataset documenting the use of insurgent gender politics in 137 rebel groups, presenting a theory of gender reform as a strategy of local control.
other RESEARCH
CONFLICT AND COALITION: SECURING lgbt RIGHTS IN the face of hostility (Comparative Political Studies, 2023)
Under what conditions do marginalized communities secure legal protection in the face of domestic resistance? This article uses original archival sources to examine the South African case, documenting how a situation of insurgency led to pioneering constitutional protection on grounds of sexual orientation.
THE DETERMINANTS OF INSURGENT Gender Governance (rEVISE AND RESUBMIT, iNTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION, 2024)
Under what conditions do insurgents challenge gender norms in the midst of conflict? What do they gain by doing so? Using an original dataset of 137 armed groups fighting between 1950 and 2019, I argue that armed groups challenge gender customs to reshape local power relations. I combine cross-national analysis with qualitative case studies examining Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Katiba Macina, two Islamist groups in Mali. This allows me to demonstrate how approach to local elites drives gender governance in two groups with a shared ideology, goals and societal context.
MEN AFTER WAR: HOW DOES CONFLICT SHAPE MALE ATTITUDES TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY?
Armed conflict has repeatedly been associated with a shift in gender relations, with extensive research highlighting an increase in female empowerment after civil war. . This project addresses the impact of conflict on male gender roles and attitudes, providing insight into the conditions under which post conflict gender equality measures succeed or fail.
MEasuring Gender equality w/Sabrina Karim and Daniel Hill
Scholars have used large-N, quantitative analysis to demonstrate that women's status is related to political violence and that political violence creates variation in the status of women globally. While such studies have been enormously beneficial, we argue that there is a need to disentangle gender from the status of women as conceptual categories, as well as to differentiate among different concepts related to the status of women. Doing so demonstrates clear mechanisms for the relationship. We argue that women's inclusion, women's rights, harm to women, and belief about women's roles as concepts offer better analytical leverage for understanding the relationships between political violence and the status of women. We develop novel Bayesian latent variable for each of these measures to show that political violence has differential effects on the status of women if the concepts are dissagregated.
PUBLICATIONS
'Conflict and coalition: Securing LGBT rights in the face of hostility’ Comparative Political Studies AVAILABLE HERE
'The Impact of Foreign Aid on Democracy' In Routledge Handbook of Democratization in Africa. G. Lynch P. VonDoepp, Eds. (w/ Nicolas Van De Walle) 2018 AVAILABLE HERE
“Women in Peacemaking/Peacekeeping,” in Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations, Patrick James (ed.), Oxford University Press AVAILABLE HERE
uNDER REVIEW
'To Have and to Hold: The Determinants of Insurgent Gender Governance’ (Revise and Resubmit at International Organization, Shortlisted for Cedric Smith Prize 2024)
