Skip to main content
Amanda Chisholm

Dr Amanda Chisholm

Reader in Gender and Security

Research interests

  • Conflict
  • Security

Biography

Dr Amanda Chisholm is a Reader in Gender and Security across both War Studies and Defence Studies.

Her research focuses on the privatisation and decentring of global war-making.  Her work is located at the nexus of Feminist International Relations, Global Political Economy, and Security Studies. She employs ethnographic methodologies to examine the racial and gendered aspects of private military and security companies’ (PMSCs) global operations. Her work is concerned with how gendered and racial logics sustain difference, assign value and reproduce hierarchies amongst these workforces and the ways in which these security market relations involve household labour. Having recently been awarded an Economic and Social Research Council Future leaders’ grant, her current work looks at issues of (un)ethical recruitment practices in unarmed and armed global South security workforces and households.

Dr Chisholm’s research has appeared in International Feminist Journal of Politics, Security Dialogue, Globalizations, Critical Military Studies and International Political Sociology as well as numerous edited volumes on Private Military and Security Companies, Military Research Methods, Gender and the Military, and Gender and Global Political Economy.

Research Interests

  • Feminist security studies and  global political economy
  • Private Military and Security Companies
  • Gender and the military
  • Gurkhas
  • Ethnography
  • Ethical recruitment

Teaching

Gender and Global Politics

Masculinities, Militarism and War Module

Dr Chisholm is happy to Supervise PhD students interested in feminist theory, women peace and security, gender and the military, global security and militarism

Publications

  • Chisholm, A. and Eichler, M. (2018) “The Private within the Private: Accounting for the Household in Global Privatisation of Security” International Feminist Journal of Politics
  • Davies, M. and Chisholm, A. (2018) “Neoliberalism and Sexual Violence: A Reading of Dollhouse” International Political Sociology
  • Chisholm, A. and Tidy, J. (2017) “Beyond the Hegemonic in the study of militaries, masculinities and war” Critical Military Studies. 3(2): 99-102
  • Chisholm A. (2017) “Client, Contractor and the Everyday Masculinities in Global Private Security” Critical Military Studies. 3(2): 120-141
  • Chisholm A. and Stachowitsch S. (2016) “Everyday Matters in Global Security Supply Chains: A Feminist Global Political Economy Perspective on Gurkhas in Private Security”. Globalisations. 13(6), 815-829. (4 citation)
  • Chisholm A. (2014) “ Marketing the Gurkha security package: Colonial histories and neoliberal economies of private security”. Security Dialogue45(4), 349-372. (60 citations)
  • Chisholm A. (2014) “ The Silenced and Indispensible: GURKHAS IN PRIVATE MILITARY SECURITY COMPANIES”. International Feminist Journal of Politics 2014, 16(1), 26-47. (20 citations)
  • Chisholm, A. (2018). The Myth, The Men, and The Markets: The Gendered Political Economies of Security. In Elias J. and Roberts A. (eds). Handbook on Feminist GPE. London: Routledge. in press.
  • Chisholm A., Stachowitsch S. (2017) Military Markets, Masculinities, and the Global Political Economy of the Everyday: Understanding Military Outsourcing as Gendered and Racialised. In: Duncanson, Claire; Woodward, Rachael, (eds.) Palgrave Handbook on Gender and the Military. Palgrave, DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-51677-0_23
  • Chisholm, A. (2016) The Culture of Whiteness in Private Security. In: Kinsey, C and Bernestein, J, (eds). Routledge Research Companion in Security Outsourcing. London: Routlege. pp. 257-269
  • Chisholm, A. (2016) Ethnography in Conflict Zones: The Perils of Researching Private Security Contractors. In Williams, A, J, Jenkings,  K N, Rech, M F and Woodward, R, (eds.) The Routledge Research Companion to Military  Research Methods. London: Routledge. pp.138-152 (4 citations)
  • Chisholm A. (2015) “ From Warriors of Empire to Martial Contractors: Reimagining Gurkhas in Private Security”. In: Eichler, M, (ed.) Gender and Private Security in Global Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.95-113.  

Dr Amanda Chisholm PURE Profile

Research

FSPR Thumb New
Forum for Private Security Research

The FSPR provides a hub for scholars interested in studying the private security sector.

DYLDnpuXcAYRMDU
Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR)

The Research Centre in International Relations conducts research on practices of security and conflict, their transformation, and their social and political implications.

twisted gun promo
Conflict, Security & Development Research Group

CSDRG undertakes a wide range of research, policy, advisory, and teaching activities related to conflict, security and development.

Gender Studies logo
Gender Studies at King's

Bringing together like-minded scholars and students from across King's to examine the influence of gender relations..

News

Roundtable of key experts and practitioners discuss Women in Peace & Security

The School of Security Studies held a Roundtable event to mark the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325

Speaker headshots

Why we need to queer security studies

To coincide with Pride London Dr Jamie J. Hagen joins Amanda Chisholm to discuss transgender rights, queering security studies and gender equality

Transgender Flag

Events

12OctPrivatisation of war-2

Privatisation of warfare

This event will see Professor Elke Krahmann discussing her new book about commercial militaries and the privatisation of war

Please note: this event has passed.

25JanProtest illustration

Bodily subjections, sovereignty as excess: investigating mechanisms of power in Brazilian society

Amanda Álvares Ferreira analyses the reproduction of the discourse on sovereignty in International Relations as a mechanism of fixation of bodily identity

Please note: this event has passed.

22FebProtest march in Malaysia

Marta Vergara and the struggle for equal nationality rights at the League of Nations

Natali Cinelli Moreira will discuss how Global South actors have historically brought plural feminisms to the negotiations of women's rights, how their ideas...

Please note: this event has passed.

18JanCountries blue and pink

Are all States masculine?

Sofia Perez Gil discusses the feminisation process that “less-powerful” or smaller countries go through.

Please note: this event has passed.

05DecAMANDA BOOK LAUNCH

From Military to Market: Feminist Framings of Private Security, Warfare and Global Militarism

Book Launch and “in conversation” with Amanda Chisholm and Cynthia Enloe

Please note: this event has passed.

28SepMexico flag

An extraordinary story of long-term homicide decline: Mexico in the 20th century

Raúl Zepeda Gil explains how Mexico has undergone a long process of pacification.

Please note: this event has passed.

12OctZaporizhzhia 780x440

A different kind of nuclear weapon: Russian abuse of Ukrainian nuclear power plants

Dr Ross Peel explores the events at the Zaporizhzhia power plant since Russian military forces took control.

Please note: this event has passed.

09NovLebanon police

Community Policing in Lebanon: between counterinsurgency and securitisation

Using Lebanon as a case study, Dr Francisco Mazzola examines the impact of community policing on human security

Please note: this event has passed.

07DecGlobal web

Astrostrategy to National Strategy: utilising the maritime strategic way of thinking

Dr James Smith explores how, in the 21st century and beyond, maritime strategic ways of thinking can help guide strategists, theorists and policymakers alike.

Please note: this event has passed.

26Octrussian tanks

Tactical NATO military logistics in major warfighting

Focusing on the Russo-Ukrainian war, Dr Ronald Ti discusses how the resilience of NATO military logistic systems has been degraded due to trends in modern...

Please note: this event has passed.

Features

Transforming masculinities: Engaging with men in post-conflict settings

An interview with leading expert on men and masculinities, Herni Myrttinen, on engaging with men in post-conflict peacebuilding.

transforming masculinities feature

Research

FSPR Thumb New
Forum for Private Security Research

The FSPR provides a hub for scholars interested in studying the private security sector.

DYLDnpuXcAYRMDU
Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR)

The Research Centre in International Relations conducts research on practices of security and conflict, their transformation, and their social and political implications.

twisted gun promo
Conflict, Security & Development Research Group

CSDRG undertakes a wide range of research, policy, advisory, and teaching activities related to conflict, security and development.

Gender Studies logo
Gender Studies at King's

Bringing together like-minded scholars and students from across King's to examine the influence of gender relations..

News

Roundtable of key experts and practitioners discuss Women in Peace & Security

The School of Security Studies held a Roundtable event to mark the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325

Speaker headshots

Why we need to queer security studies

To coincide with Pride London Dr Jamie J. Hagen joins Amanda Chisholm to discuss transgender rights, queering security studies and gender equality

Transgender Flag

Events

12OctPrivatisation of war-2

Privatisation of warfare

This event will see Professor Elke Krahmann discussing her new book about commercial militaries and the privatisation of war

Please note: this event has passed.

25JanProtest illustration

Bodily subjections, sovereignty as excess: investigating mechanisms of power in Brazilian society

Amanda Álvares Ferreira analyses the reproduction of the discourse on sovereignty in International Relations as a mechanism of fixation of bodily identity

Please note: this event has passed.

22FebProtest march in Malaysia

Marta Vergara and the struggle for equal nationality rights at the League of Nations

Natali Cinelli Moreira will discuss how Global South actors have historically brought plural feminisms to the negotiations of women's rights, how their ideas...

Please note: this event has passed.

18JanCountries blue and pink

Are all States masculine?

Sofia Perez Gil discusses the feminisation process that “less-powerful” or smaller countries go through.

Please note: this event has passed.

05DecAMANDA BOOK LAUNCH

From Military to Market: Feminist Framings of Private Security, Warfare and Global Militarism

Book Launch and “in conversation” with Amanda Chisholm and Cynthia Enloe

Please note: this event has passed.

28SepMexico flag

An extraordinary story of long-term homicide decline: Mexico in the 20th century

Raúl Zepeda Gil explains how Mexico has undergone a long process of pacification.

Please note: this event has passed.

12OctZaporizhzhia 780x440

A different kind of nuclear weapon: Russian abuse of Ukrainian nuclear power plants

Dr Ross Peel explores the events at the Zaporizhzhia power plant since Russian military forces took control.

Please note: this event has passed.

09NovLebanon police

Community Policing in Lebanon: between counterinsurgency and securitisation

Using Lebanon as a case study, Dr Francisco Mazzola examines the impact of community policing on human security

Please note: this event has passed.

07DecGlobal web

Astrostrategy to National Strategy: utilising the maritime strategic way of thinking

Dr James Smith explores how, in the 21st century and beyond, maritime strategic ways of thinking can help guide strategists, theorists and policymakers alike.

Please note: this event has passed.

26Octrussian tanks

Tactical NATO military logistics in major warfighting

Focusing on the Russo-Ukrainian war, Dr Ronald Ti discusses how the resilience of NATO military logistic systems has been degraded due to trends in modern...

Please note: this event has passed.

Features

Transforming masculinities: Engaging with men in post-conflict settings

An interview with leading expert on men and masculinities, Herni Myrttinen, on engaging with men in post-conflict peacebuilding.

transforming masculinities feature