Priscilla Torres
Assistant Professor of Political Science
B.A., Loyola Marymount University M.A., Duke University Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow, Cornell University PhD., Duke University
Professor Torres is an incoming Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, where she will teach courses on international relations and global governance. Her research focuses on peacekeeping, peacebuilding and gender and international relations. Central to her research is the study of international initiatives and their implications for sub-national outcomes, whether that be conflict/peace or gender equality for example. Professor Torres’ work has previously been published in International Studies Quarterly and Populism. Her research has been funded by the United States Institute of Peace, by the Bradley Foundation and by the Department of Political Science at Duke University.
Her dissertation focuses on the effects of international peacebuilding on a multitude of local peace outcomes, conditional on community dispute resolution structures already in place. She relies on two original surveys, as well as community leader interviews and community histories from Liberia in the dissertation. She also has work that explores these same dynamics in Central Asia.
She was previously a pre-doctoral fellow at the Gender and Security Sector Lab at Cornell University where she worked on assessments of the barriers to women’s meaningful participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations for the Armed Forces of Liberia and the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Current and upcoming courses
Since the middle of the 20th century, the number and scope of international institutions have expanded substantially. These institutions, or the formal and informal rules, roles, and relationships, define and facilitate the interests and conduct of states and non-state actors in international affairs. The course analyzes why and how institutionalized cooperation/conflict in world politics occurs and explores the design, function, and effectiveness of various institutions, including prominent intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and the International Criminal Court. Students will also study how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), mainly transnational advocacy networks and organizations, prioritize goals, frame issues, and interact with governments, international institutions, and other advocacy groups. The course also explores how and why international norms about state conduct in wartime, humanitarian assistance, women’s rights, human rights, and global cybersecurity evolve or erode.
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Seminar: Women and Conflict
POL3393
The seminar will examine a variety of topics concerning the dynamic between women and conflict including whether a lack of women’s rights leads to conflict, the contributions of women to security, women’s mobilization for conflict, the sex gap in conflict-related public opinion, and women’s rights after war. A variety of methodological approaches, including positivist as well as critical theoretical perspectives, will be covered to better understand the strengths, limitations, and complementarities of different approaches to studying women and conflict. In other words, we will use these different approaches to gain clarity on how we “know what we know” about women and conflict. Students will spend a significant portion of the class contending with issues of measurement, conceptual validity and ruling out alternative explanations. Key historical developments with relevance to women and conflict such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), women’s involvement in the military, and the passing of the Murad Code will also be discussed. (PEAC 393 and POL3 393 are cross-listed courses.)