Dr. Maria Eriksson Baaz

Biography

Maria Eriksson Baaz is a Professor in Political Science at Uppsala University, specializing in International Politics. Her teaching and research interests encompass international relations with a focus on politics in Africa, critical security studies, military studies, research ethics, gender, and post-colonial theory. Her initial research, including her PhD, was situated in postcolonial studies, analyzing the identities of donor development workers and their manifestations in development practice. Over the years, she has expanded her research areas to include security governance and humanitarian interventions. A significant part of her work addresses the dynamics of sexual violence in conflict settings, with particular attention to conflict-related sexual violence. In addition, she has engaged in research on security sector reform and civil-military relations, with an empirical focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is actively involved in discussions surrounding research methodology and ethics, serving on the Swedish Research Council's Expert Group on Ethics and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Her recent ongoing projects investigate the role of local research brokers in insecure zones and explore the continuum of sexual violence across war and peace contexts, utilizing original empirical data from regions including the Democratic Republic of Congo and India.

Research Interests

Experience