Columba Achilleos-Sarll

Columba Achilleos-Sarll is a Lecturer in Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on feminist and post/decolonial approaches to international relations, with a primary emphasis on the United Nations Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. She explores civil society advocacy, feminist foreign policy, and visual representations of global politics.

• PhD in Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
• MPhil in International Relations, University of Oxford
• PGCHE in Higher Education, University of Warwick

Her work examines the WPS agenda through affective politics, relational power dynamics, and transnational advocacy networks. She investigates how race and coloniality intersect with gender in UK policy implementation and analyzes visual security narratives in EU border operations. Recent publications address feminist foreign policy frameworks and abolitionist feminist peace paradigms.

She co-convenes the POLSIS Gender and Feminist Theory research group and is contracted with Oxford University Press for a manuscript on UK WPS institutionalization. Her research has received recognition from professional associations, including the Edward Said Award and BISA nominations.

• 2019 ISA Global Development Studies Edward Said Award (recipient)
• 2017 Feminist Studies Association Prize (shortlisted)
• 2021 International Affairs Early Career Prize (shortlisted)
• Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize (nominated)
• Warwick Teaching Commendation (recipient)
• Warwick Award for Postgraduates who Teach (nominated)

Columba supervises PhD students on WPS localization in Uganda and UK counter-terrorism biases. She contributes to peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and policy-focused blogs, emphasizing affective labor in academia and critical feminist pedagogies.