ProfessorLaura J. Shepherd

FHEA (UK)

Laura J. Shepherd is a Professor of International Relations in the School of Social and Political Sciences and she leads the "Gender Security" research program in the Centre for International Security Studies. Laura served as President of the International Studies Association (2023-2024). She is a former Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2018-2022), and has been a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security in London, UK, since 2016.

Laura's primary research focuses on the United Nations Security Council's Women, Peace and Security agenda, and attendant dynamics of gender, violence, and peace and security governance. Laura has conducted projects investigating logics of gender and space in UN peacebuilding discourse and examining advocacy around, and implementation of, the Women, Peace and Security agenda at global, national, and local levels. Both projects received funding from the Australian Research Council (DP130100707 and DP160100212 respectively). Laura's Future Fellowship research investigated the relationship between the Women, Peace and Security agenda and efforts to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism, with a specific focus on Australia, Sweden, and the UK (FT170100037). Laura was a co-director on the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice, and Security Hub (2019-2024), and a co-investigator on research projects funded in the Law and Policy Frameworks stream and the Methodological Innovation stream.