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Research Interests

Gender and security, African politics and security, International Relations, non-state armed groups, political violence, decoloniality

Biography

Yolande Bouka (Ph.D. American University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. Her research and teaching focus on gender, African politics and security, political violence, and field research ethics in conflict-affected societies. She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from American University.  Her current research is a multi-sited historical and political analysis of female combatants in Southern Africa. Her previous research which is now a book manuscript “In the Shadow of Prison: Power, Identity, and Transitional Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda” focused on the social and political impacts of the power-laden nature of the Rwandan transitional justice program.  Her research has received support from the Fulbright Scholar Program and the American Association of University Women.  Prior to joining Queen’s University, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Denver.

In addition to her academic work, she has extensive experience with development and security research agencies.  She has worked with and offered support to USAID, the UK Department for International Development, the United Nations, the African Union, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the United States Institute of Peace. Between 2014 and 2016 she was a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division in Nairobi, Kenya, where she led research on peace and security in Africa’s Great Lakes Region. She currently serves on the Research Advisory Council of the RESOLVE Network, a global consortium of researchers, research organizations, policymakers, and practitioners committed to empirically driven, locally-defined research on the drivers of violent extremism and sources of community resilience.

Teaching

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages. 

Service (2024/2025)

• Colloquium Committee (Chair)
• Departmental Committee