Jakana Thomas

Jakana Thomas is Associate Professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and Department of Political Science at the University of California San Diego. She is also a faculty affiliate of UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health and an advisory board member for several organizations, including the RESOLVE Network—housed at the United States Institutes of Peace, the American Bar Association’s Women and Girls Empowered Network, and the Empirical Study of Gender Network. She is associate editor at the H-DIPLO International Security Studies Forum.

Her research focuses on the gender dimensions of political violence, with an emphasis on women’s participation in violent political organizations. Her work seeks to better understand why violent groups, including rebel, terrorist and community-based armed groups recruit women, why women are drawn to violent politics, the unique contributions women make to conflict processes, and the societal consequences of women’s inclusion in and exclusion from politics. Her recent research also examines gender-based violence in the United States and violence against women in politics. Her research appears in many leading Political Science and International Relations journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Organization and the Journal of Peace Research.