Department of Politics and International Studies

Reader in Political Sociology

Academic Board

Member

Board of Trustees

Ex-Officio Member

Name:

Dr Awino Okech

Email address:

ao21@soas.ac.uk

Address:

SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Building:

Russell Square: College Buildings

Office No:

4403

Academic Support Hours:

Mondays 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Biography

My teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality, security, and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. I am attentive to power in knowledge production and transfer processes and explore these dynamics through my methodological and pedagogical choices in my research and in the classroom. Prior to joining SOAS, I worked for over a decade in the development sector across various sub-regions in Africa, supporting women rights organisations and local movements working at the intersection of gender and conflict. This work remains central to my scholarship and teaching and is illustrated in ongoing support to feminist social justice movements in Africa and feminist movement building organisations globally. At SOAS, my work is split between teaching in the Department of Politics and International Studies and supporting the delivery of SOAS racial justice commitments as Associate Director Equity and Accountability

Programmes Convened

• MA Gender Studies (2018)

Modules Taught

• African Feminisms: Theories, Politics and Action
• Gender and Security in Africa
• Gender and Security in Africa (online)
• Gender, Sexuality in Global Politics (online)
• Introduction to Research Methods
• Politics of Gender

PhD Students supervised

• Hanna Al Taher, Gendered Citizenship in Jordan: Imagining, Claiming, Resisting Belonging
• Nina Sun, Intra-household Gender Relations and Modern Marriage Ideal in urban China
• Renata Guimarães Naso, Engaging with (dis)embodiment: Brazilian women and sexual harassment in public spaces.
• Xia'nan Jin, Women's political life in post-genocide Rwanda (working title)

Authored Books

Okech, Awino (2019) Widow inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya. London: Routledge.

Articles

Nazneen, Sohela and Okech, Awino (2021) 'Introduction: Feminist Protests and Politics in a World in Crisis'. Gender and Development, (29) 2/3, pp 231-252.

Okech, Awino and Essof, Shereen and Carlsen, Laura (2021) 'Movement Building Responses to COVID-19: Lessons from the JASS Mobilisation Fund'. Economia Politica. [Forthcoming]

Okech, Awino (2021) 'Feminist Digital Counterpublics: Challenging Femicide in Kenya and South Africa'. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, (46) 4, pp 1013-1033.

Okech, Awino and Mwambari, David and Olonisakin, 'Funmi (2021) 'COVID-19 responses and human rights in selected African countries'. Australian Journal of Human Rights, (26) 3, pp 549-555.

Okech, Awino (2021) 'Governing Gender: Violent Extremism in Northern Nigeria'. Africa Development, (46) 3, pp 1-19.

Okech, Awino (2020) 'African Feminist Epistemic Communities and Decoloniality'. Critical African Studies, (12) 3, pp 313-329.

Okech, Awino and Musindarwezo, Dinah (2019) 'Building Transnational Feminist Alliances: reflections on the post 2015 development agenda'. Contexto Internacional, (41) 2, pp 255-272.

Okech, Awino (2019) 'Gender and state-building conversations: the discursive production of gender identity in Kenya and Rwanda'. Journal Conflict, Security & Development, (21) 4, pp 501-515.

Okech, Awino (2018) 'Boundary anxieties and infrastructures of violence: Somali identity in post-Westgate Kenya'. Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, (3) 2, pp 293-309.

Olonisakin, 'Funmi and Hendricks, Cheryl and Okech, Awino (2015) 'The convergence and divergence of three pillars of influence in gender and security'. African Security Review, (24) 4, pp 376-389.

Okech, Awino (2015) 'Asymmetrical conflict and human security: Reflections from Kenya'. Strategic Review for Southern Africa, (37) 1, pp 53-74.

Okech, Awino (2013) 'Gendered security: Between ethno-nationalism and constitution making in Kenya'. Africa Peace and Conflict Journal, (6) 1, pp 29-42.

Edited Books or Journals

Okech, Awino, (ed.), (2020) Gender, Protests and Political Change in Africa. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. (Gender, Development and Social Change).

Olonisakin, Funmi and Hendricks, Cheryl and Okech, Awino, (eds.), (2013) Africa peace and conflict journal - Vo.6 No. 1. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: University for Peace Africa Programme.

Olonisakin, Funmi and Okech, Awino, (eds.), (2011) Women and Security Governance in Africa. Cape Town; Dakar; Nairobi; Oxford: Fahamu; Pambazuka Press.

Book Chapters

Matchett, Sara and Okech, Awino (2015) 'Uhambo: pieces of a dream - Waiting in the Ambiguity of Liminality'. In: Reinelt, Janelle and Singleton, Brian, (eds.), Performing Migrancy and Mobility in Africa. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp 110-124.

Okech, Awino (2013) ''In sisterhood and solidarity': queering African feminist spaces'. In: Ekine, Sokari and Abbas, Hakima, (eds.), Queer African Reader. Dakar: Pambazuka Press.

Opinion Pieces / Media / Blogs

Olonisakin, 'Funmi and Okech, Awino (2020) Twenty Years of UNSC Resolution 1325 call for a Frank Forward Look.

Okech, Awino (2020) Why #EndSARS Matters in an Era of Increasing Militarisation and Repression.

Okech, Awino (2020) Humour in a Time of Coronavirus.

This list was last generated on Tuesday, 18th January 2022, 03:59 Europe/London.