Jelke Boesten

Jelke Boesten is a senior lecturer for social development and human security at the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. Her research generally focuses on issues related to gender and social policy, health, the politics of aid, and transitional justice. Her USIP project unpacks meanings of sexual violence at the interface of war and peace. Using the Peruvian conflict (1980-1995) as an example, she shows how the use of gendered political violence is reflected in 'private' and peacetime violence. The case study is situated in and compared to other cases of gender and state violence in Latin American and rape in war globally. Boesten argues that while wartime sexual violence is often seen as exceptional, the nature of that violence is reflected in peacetime inequalities and practices, which makes post-conflict justice for survivors of such violence very difficult, if not unattainable. By making an explicit link between the 'normal' violence during peacetime and the exceptionality of wartime gendered violence, Boesten hopes to contribute to a re-conceptualization of gender issues in post-conflict situations and peacebuilding efforts.

Boesten has published widely in the areas of gender and social policy, gender and conflict, international development, HIV/AIDs (in East Africa), and domestic violence, including in the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Democratization, Development in Practice, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women's Quarterly, and in a range of edited books.

• Intersecting Inequalities: Women and Social Policy in Peru (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2010)
• with Nana Poku, eds. Gender and HIV/AIDS: Perspectives from the Developing World (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009)