Constance Wilhelm-Olympiou is a Doctoral Researcher with the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where her research focuses on what the French response to female Daesh members reveals about relationship between gender, law, and security in a counterterrorism paradigm.

Constance is an experienced researcher and Public and Humanitarian Policy consultant, specialising in conflict-affected areas and fragile states. She has worked with think tanks at Princeton University and New York University, with the Afghan Mission to the UN in New York, the OECD in Paris, humanitarian and international development organisations and a public policy consulting firm in Lebanon (leading teams in Syria), in Jordan (leading teams in Yemen), in Afghanistan, in Libya, as well as across both the Horn of Africa and the Sahel-Lake Chad region. She has designed and implemented mixed qualitative and quantitative methods research and analysis projects for the EU, the U.S. government, European and African governments, the World Bank, International NGOs, and UN agencies.

Constance has an MA in Conflict Management and International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a BA from McGill University. She is fluent in French and English, intermediate in Levantine Arabic, Spanish, and Italian, and a beginner in Modern Greek.

Research Interests

• The relationship between gender, law, and security in a counterterrorism paradigm
• Socio-legal and Feminist Socio-legal studies
• Critical Security and Terrorism Studies, notably Feminist Security Studies
• Islamic State (IS), Daesh
• Women in Political Violence
• P/CVE
• Counterterrorism
• Human Rights/Ethics
• War Crimes Research

Publications

• Wilhelm, Constance and Köse, Helin. (2023). “Jugement des revenantes de Daesh en France : une période charnière”. Le Caveat. (also available in English)
• Wilhelm, Constance (2021). “Peace in the time of Pandemic 2: A Clash of Rights and Security”, Strife. King’s College London, Department of War Studies.
• Wilhelm, Constance (2020). “Peace in the time of Pandemic”, Strife. King’s College London Department of War Studies.
• Wilhelm, Constance (2014). "Identity politics: the MNLF, the MILF, and what their differences mean for the transition". In Hopmann, P. Terrence & Zartman, I. William (Eds.), Mindanao: Understanding Conflict 2014 (pp. 27-38). Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins University.
• Wilhelm, Constance (2014). "Responsibility to Protect: R2P Doesn't Work". SAIS Observer, March 30 2014.
• Taylor, Glyn, Abby Stoddard, Adele Harmer, Katherine Haver, Paul Harvey, Kathryn Barber, Lisa Schreter, and Constance Wilhelm. The State of the Humanitarian System. London: ALNAP – ODI, 2012.
• Bruce Jones, Jake Sherman, Megan Gleason, and Constance Wilhelm (2011). “Recent Evolutions in Statebuilding: From Supporting Capacity-Building to Political Processes in Statebuilding” in Situations of Fragility and Conflict: Relevance for US Policies and Programs, USAID.

Media and Presentations

• Wilhelm-Olympiou, Constance (19 December 2024). “Political Violence on Trial” [panel presentation]. European Consortium for Political Research's (ECPR) Online Seminar Series on Political Violence.
• Wilhelm-Olympiou, Constance (4 March 2024). “Les ‘Revenantes’ face à la justice” [panel presentation]. French Academic Network ProMete’s Seminar on “Les sciences sociales et les réponses de la Justice face aux violences de masse”.
• Featured in Seelow, Soren (2023), “Comment juger les « revenantes » de l’Etat islamique ? La justice antiterroriste aux prises avec les stéréotypes de genre”. Le Monde.
• Featured in Michon, Esther (15 May 2023), “Etat islamique: Comment la justice française juge les « revenantes »”. L’Heure du Monde (podcast).
• Panelist for Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Webinar “A Sisyphean Task? Prosecuting Returnees from Syria and Iraq in France”, 2 May 2023.

Teaching and Conferences

• Wilhelm-Olympiou, Constance (11 December 2024). La prise en charge des retours de zone [panel presentation]. Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature Training: Democratie et Terrorisme, Paris, France.
• Conference Co-Chair and Co-Organiser, “Protection and Justice in Times of Counter-Terrorism: Insights from the UK and France”, 7-8 September 2023, King’s College London.
• Guest lecturer (16 March 2023). Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, « L’action humanitaire en situation de crise », lecture on humanitarian action and operating in humanitarian crises, with a theoretical and practical component
• Guest lecturer (5 October 2022). University College Dublin, POL 42330 Research Design 2022, “Week 4: Comparative and Cross-National Research”, lecture on conflict research, programme evaluation, and survey design
• Graduate Teaching Assistant at King’s College London for Spring 2022 term, “Contemporary Security Issues”; nominated for King’s Education Award 2022 in this role

Thesis

Between Politics and Law: The Question of French female Islamic State returnees

This research project adopts an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the question: How does the way that points of tension and differing approaches are navigated between security, legal, and social service institutions impact or shape the formal response to female IS returnees in France? The thesis draws from neo-institutionalist, socio-legal, and feminist scholarship to understand security and legal institutions as entities with distinct cultures, discourse, and practices, and offer ways to understand and explain their interactions and the way they claim and wield power. The work frames French security institutions within a culture of risk management, and legal institutions within a culture of ‘neutral arbitration’, as is the way these institutions claim and perform knowledge, including in the context of the French value of laïcité, or secularism. Feminist institutionalist scholarship here offers insights regarding the role of gender norms within institutions, and the role in turn of institutions and institutional actions and behaviours in perpetuating or questioning these norms and their associated power structures and dynamics. This examination seeks to reveal three sets of insights. First, the relationship between gender – and especially representations and perceptions of gender, motherhood, and agency for women engaged in violence – and how these interact with dangerosité assessments. Second, regarding law and the identity and practice of legal institutions, including dimensions of performativity in terrorism trials, within a counterterrorism paradigm. And third, regarding security institutions and the dynamics of risk management and public legitimacy within an exceptionalist and rights securitization practice.

Supervisors

First Supervisor: Professor Vivienne Jabri (Department of War Studies)

Second Supervisor: Dr Nicola Palmer (Dickson Poon School of Law)