ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

Professor Marsha Henry

Professor Marsha Henry

Senior Visiting Fellow

Department of Gender Studies

Telephone
+44 (0)20 7955 6247
Connect with me

Languages
English
Key Expertise
gender, sex-selective abortion, development, militarisation, peacekeeping

About me

Professor Marsha Henry is the Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women, Peace, Security and Justice at . 

Dr Henry was formally an Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳. She joined ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ in July 2009, having previously taught at Universities of Bristol, University of British Columbia, Canada, as well as the Open University and Warwick University. She read English Literature at the University of British Columbia, Canada, before studying for a Master's in Gender and International Development at the University of Warwick. She continued her postgraduate studies at Warwick obtaining a PhD in Women and Gender in 2001. She carried out postdoctoral research in the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Relations at the University of British Columbia, before returning to the UK in order to take up a position at the University of Bristol in 2002. Before taking up her post at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, she was a lecturer in the School for Policy Studies (2002-2006) and the Politics Department at the University of Bristol (2006-2009).

Dr Henry's research interests focus on gender and development, gender and militarisation, and qualitative methodologies. Over the past 12 years, her research interests have been concentrated on documenting the social experiences of living and working in peacekeeping missions. Her recent research focusses on peacekeepers from the Global South.

Dr Henry's ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Experts entry is available .

Expertise Details

gender; sex-selective abortion; development; militarisation; peacekeeping; representation; security; Cyprus; Liberia; Haiti; Kosovo; India and South Asian Diaspora.

Publications

Books

 (eds) Mary Evans, Clare Hemmings, Marsha Henry, Hazel Johnstone, Sumi Madhok, Ania Plomien and Sadie Wearing (2014)

At no point in recorded history has there been an absence of intense, and heated, discussion about the subject of how to conduct relations between women and men. This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to these omnipresent issues and debates, mapping the present and future of thinking about feminist theory. The chapters gathered here present the state of the art in scholarship in the field, covering: epistemology and marginality; literary, visual and cultural representations; sexuality; macro and microeconomics of gender; conflict and peace. It is an essential reference work for advanced students and academics not only of feminist theory, but of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences.

It is an essential reference work for advanced students and academics not only of feminist theory, but of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences.

   

 by Paul Higate and Marsha Henry (2009)

In this book, Paul Higate and Marsha Henry develop critical perspectives on UN and NATO peacekeeping, arguing that these forms of international intervention are framed by the exercise of power. Their analysis of peacekeeping, based on fieldwork conducted in Haiti, Liberia and Kosovo, suggests that peacekeeping reconfigures former conflict zones in ways that shape perceptions of security. This reconfiguration of space is enacted by peacekeeping personnel who 'perform' security through their daily professional and personal practices, sometimes with unanticipated effects.

 

Selected Articles:

 

  • Boesten, J and Henry, M. (forthcoming 2018) ‘Between Fatigue and Silence: The Challenges of Conducting Research on Sexual Violence in Conflict’, Social Politics, pp: ****.
  • Henry, M. G. (2018). Why critical military studies needs to smash imperial white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy: a rejoinder. Critical Military Studies, 1-4.
  • Henry, Marsha (2017) Critical Military Studies, 3 (2). pp. 182-199.
  • Henry, Marsha and Natanel, Katherine (2016) Gender, Place, and Culture, 23 (6). pp. 850-856.
  • Henry, M (2015) 'Parades, Parties and Pests: Contradictions of Everyday Life in Peacekeeping Economies', Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Volume 1, Issue 1: pp. 1-19 (published online 27 August 2015)
  • Kirby, P and Henry, M. (2012) ‘Rethinking Masculinity in Conflict and Postconflict Settings’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, (eds M. Henry and P. Kirby), Volume 14, Issue 4: pp. 445-449.
  • Henry, M. (2012) 'Peacexploitation? Interrogating Labor Hierarchies and Global Sisterhood Among Indian and Uruguayan Female Peacekeepers' Globalizations, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp. 15-33.
  • Higate, P. and Henry, M. (2010) ‘Space, Performance and Everyday Security in the Peacekeeping Context’, International Peacekeeping, Vol 17, No 1, pp. 32-48.
  • Henry, M., Higate, P. and Sanghera, G (2009) ‘Power and Positionality: The Politics of Peacekeeping Research’, International Peacekeeping, 16(4) pp. 467-482.
  • Henry, M. (2007) ‘Gender, Security and Development’ Conflict, Security and Development,  Vol. 7, Issue 1., pp. 61-84.
  • Henry, M. (2007)  ‘If the Shoe Fits:  Authority, Authenticity and Agency in Feminist Diasporic Research’ Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 30, Issue 1, Jan/Feb, pp. 70-80.
  • Higate, P. and Henry, M. (2004) ‘Engendering (In)security in Peacekeeping Operations’, Security Dialogue Vol. 35 (4), pp. 481-498.
  • Thapar-Björkert. S. and Henry, M. (2004) ‘Reassessing the research relationship:  location, position and power in fieldwork accounts’,International Journal of Social Research Methodology:  Theory and Practice, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 363-381. 
  • Henry, M. (2003) “‘Where are you really from?” Representation, Identity and Power in the Fieldwork Experiences of a South Asian Diasporic’, Qualitative Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 229-242.

Selected Book Chapters:

 

  • Henry, M. and Karim, S (2018) 'Gender and Peacekeeping', Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict, eds Dina Hayes, Naomi Cahn, Fionnuoula Ni  Aoláin & Nahla Valji, Oxford University Press.
  • Hyde, A and Henry, M. (2013) 'The Contributions of Cynthia Enloe's Bananas, Bases and Beaches' Classics of International Relations: Seminal Works of International Theory from Angell to Deudney eds H. Bliddal, C. Sylvester and P. Wilson, Routledge, pp. 197-207.
  • Henry, M. (2013) 'Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping Missions:  Reconceptualising Agency and Gender Relations' Agency and Coercion, eds A. Phillips, K. Wilson and S. Madhok, Routledge, pp.122-142.
  • Henry, M. and Higate, P. (2013) ‘Peacekeeping Power Practices and Women's Insecurity in Haiti' Building Walls, Unmaking Borders, Constructing Identities:  The Securitization of  Space and the Making of Community Imagination eds M. Stephenson and L. Zanotti, Ashgate, pp. 133-154.
  • Henry, M. (2012) 'Peacexploitation? Interrogating Labor Hierarchies and Global Sisterhood Among Indian and Uruguayan Female Peacekeepers' Global South to the Rescue, Routledge Rethinking Globalizations Series. 
  • Higate, P. and Henry, M. (2011) ‘Militarising Spaces: A Geographical Exploration of Southern Cyprus’ in Reconstructing Conflict: Integrating War and Post-War Geographies, Scott Kirsch and Colin Flint (eds), Ashgate, pp. 133-156.
  • Henry, M. (2006) ‘Knowledge Crossing Borders:  Images of South Asian Women in Reporting on Sex Selection Practices’,Asian Women:  Interconnections, T. Hellwig and S. Thobani (eds.), Women’s Press (Toronto), pp. 223-247.
  • Henry, M. (2003) ‘Investing in Mothering: Reproduction, Sex-Selective Technologies and Biological Capital in an Indian Case Study’, inDebating Biology: Sociological Reflections on Health, Medicine and Society,  S. J. Williams, G. Bendelow and L. Birke (eds.), Routledge, pp. 185-197.
  • Birke, L. and Henry, M. (1997) ‘The Blackhole:  Women's Studies, Science and Technology’,Introducing Women’s Studies, eds. V. Robinson and D. Richardson, London:  Macmillan Press, pp. 220-238.  (Also printed in the US edition, Thinking Through Feminisms)

Research Reports

  • Higate, PR & Henry, M. (2006) ‘Between Warrior and Humanitarian Security: Perceptions of Past and Present Peacekeeping in Liberia’, Chatham House
  • Henry, M. (2005) ‘Gender, Security and Development: A CSDG Working Paper’ for The International Policy Institute/King's College London and the Swedish Ministry for Development

Research Interests & Projects


Her research interests focus on three main research areas: gender and development; gender, security and militarisation; and qualitative methodologies. Her doctoral research focused on reproductive decision-making amongst middle-class women in India and her postdoctoral research was concerned with immigration medical exams in Canada. Over the past 10 years, her research interests have been concentrated on documenting the social experiences of living and working in peacekeeping missions. Her recent research focuses on peacekeepers from the Global South.

Over a number of years she has been thinking and writing about the fieldwork challenges faced by the 'unconventional' researcher.

Recent Projects

  • Gender, Peacekeeping and Justice in Postconflict Contexts (GI RIIF)
  • Engendering Peacekeeping: The Experiences of Indian Women Peacekeepers, STICERD-ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳
  • Peacekeeping, Poverty, and Development: Towards an Understanding of the Gendered Peacekeeping Economies in the DRC, Sudan, and Liberia, Norwegian Research Council