Beatriz Arnal Calvo

The aim of my research project is to explore the relevance of a feminist narrative approach in International Relations in general and Peace Studies in particular. To do so, I focus more closely on the relation between, on one hand, the process of the everyday making, unmaking and remaking of both official and peripheral gendered and national Sahrawi identities in two of the four Sahrawi territorialities (the Sahrawi refugee camps in Southwestern Algeria and the Sahrawi diaspora in Spain) and, on the other hand, the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of certain Sahrawi identities in the Western Sahara peace process (and its analysis).

Thus, the overall research question is if, and if so how and to what extent a feminist narrative approach can: 

(i)             situate peripheral gendered and national Sahrawi identities, excluded from the Western Sahara peace process (and its analysis);

(ii)            demonstrate that the inclusion of those peripheral gendered and national Sahrawi identities in the Western Sahara peace process (and its analysis) contribute to achieving a more just, inclusive and durable peace for both Moroccans and Sahrawis.

My research interests are multidisciplinary as they draw on various fields such as Feminist Studies, Peace Studies, Decolonial Studies, Resistance Studies, Critical Security Studies, Critical Development Studies, Refugee Studies, Forced Discplacement Studies, Diaspora Studies, Maghreb Studies, Politics and Aesthetics, and Feminist Political Ecology.