معرفی
Maria Eriksson Baaz is Professor in Political Science specializing in International Politics at Uppsala University's Department of Government within the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her expertise centers on critical analyses of power, violence, and knowledge production with deep empirical engagement in African contexts, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Her research interests span international relations, critical security studies, postcolonial theory, and gender studies with a focus on politics in and on Africa. She has pioneered work on conflict-related sexual violence, examining both perpetrator perspectives and survivor experiences, while challenging conventional framings of sexual violence as a 'weapon of war.' Her scholarship consistently interrogates colonial continuities in security discourse, development practices, and knowledge production.
Eriksson Baaz leads significant research initiatives funded by the Swedish Research Council, including 'Exploring the research backstage' (2018-2020) investigating ethical issues surrounding local research brokers in insecure zones, and 'Sexual Violence along the War and Peace Continuum' (2019-2022) bridging scholarship on wartime and peacetime sexual violence. Her methodological contributions emphasize ethical fieldwork practices and decolonizing research approaches.
She serves in influential advisory roles as a member of the Expert Group on Ethics at the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Scientific Advisory Board at Sida, and the Ethics Examination Authority (Etikprövningsmyndigheten), where she shapes national research ethics standards.
Her scholarly impact extends through extensive publications addressing decolonial perspectives on development aid, critical analyses of security governance, and nuanced examinations of gendered violence in conflict settings. She collaborates internationally with researchers like Mats Utas, Swati Parashar, and Maria Stern on cutting-edge projects that challenge dominant paradigms in political science and security studies.
