Book launch: High-Risk Feminism in Colombia. Women's Mobilization in Violent Contexts

We were delighted to host Dr Julia Zulver to present her new book, High-Risk Feminism in Colombia on May 12, 2022. The book documents the experiences of grassroots women’s organizations that united to demand gender justice during and in the aftermath of Colombia’s armed conflict. In doing so, it illustrates a little-studied phenomenon: women whose experiences with violence catalyze them to mobilize and resist as feminists, even in the face of grave danger. Despite a well-established tradition of studying women in war, we tend to focus on their roles as mothers or careers, as peacemakers, or sometimes as revolutionaries. This book explains the gendered underpinnings of why women engage in feminist mobilization, even when this takes place in a ‘domain of losses’ that exposes them to high levels of risk. It follows four women’s organizations who break with traditional gender norms and defy armed groups’ social and territorial control, exposing them to retributive punishment. It provides rich evidence to document how women are able to surmount the barriers to mobilization when they frame their actions in terms of resistance, rather than fear. 

High-Risk Feminism in Colombia. Women’s Mobilization in Violent Contexts, by Julia Margaret Zulver (May 2022) is published by Rutgers University Press.

Dr. Julia Zulver is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (UNAM, Mexico). Her work investigates women’s high-risk leadership in Latin America, with a focus on Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia. She has extensive research and practitioner experience along the Colombia-Venezuela border, when she supports Ladysmith’s Cosas de Mujeres gender data project with vulnerable women. She earned her DPhil in Sociology from the University of Oxford in 2018. Her book - High-Risk Feminism in Colombia - will be available from Rutgers University Press in May 2022. Julia prioritizes making her research accessible to diverse audiences, and frequently publishes newspaper articles and opinion pieces in outlets like The Guardian, openDemocracy, and The BBC.