Feminist encounters of statebuilding in Kosovo

Contributions of women and feminist encounters in processes of state-building have historically been written out of peace research. What is more, they have been actively reduced to appendages to the field with their contributions appropriated for its development but unworthy of mention as independent producers of knowledge. Taking Kosovo as a case study, this project foregrounds and develops a feminist state-building agenda in IR. Looking at the trajectory of (international) state-building in Kosovo since 1999, the project problematizes the limits of liberal interventionism and state-building by unearthing, studying and problematizing feminist encounters – processes, developments and actors – that have been central yet overlooked in liberal state-building. Rather than simply showing how the state is being built by and through women and feminist encounters, this project is interested to problematize women and feminist subjectivities vis-a-vis the state and state-building in Kosovo. The project interrogates what kind of a state is being built, contested and (re)negotiated in these three cases through those feminist subjectivities.