Lou Raisonnier holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University, where she studied Political Science, Islamic Studies, and Arabic, and a master’s degree in international security from Sciences Po Paris, with a concentration in intelligence and Middle Eastern studies. She is currently pursuing a doctorate at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

She was a visiting Ph.D researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po Paris and is currently affiliated with the Network for Strategic Analysis.

Her doctoral thesis, Framing Female “Terrorism”: French Return-Related Legislations and Security Practices, explores how French security and administrative institutions handle and legally frame the return of women associated with the Islamic State in the Iraqi Syrian zone.

She is fluent in French and English, intermediate in classical Arabic, Spanish and a beginner in Ukrainian.

Research Interests

• Critical Terrorism Studies
• P/CVE- Counterterrorism
• Daesh, Islamic State (IS)
• Women and political violence
• Framing Female “Terrorism”: French Return-Related Legislations and Security Practices

This research examines how the French state constructs policies for the return of female jihadists from camps in Iraq and Syria, with a particular focus on the institutional perceptions and dynamics that shape these decisions. It explores the factors influencing both the substance of repatriation policies and the security practices surrounding their implementation.

While gendered conceptions of terrorism undeniably shape institutional responses, this research suggests that they coexist with, and are often overshadowed by, other factors. Equally, if not more, decisive are the ways institutional actors perceive their own mandates, negotiate inter-agency responsibilities, and navigate the symbolic, bureaucratic, and political constraints within which they operate.

This work also argues that the broader political context; particularly France’s relationship to laïcité, the rightward shift in the political landscape, and the hypersecuritization of public policy; plays a central role in shaping the formulation and implementation of return policies.

These structural and ideological dynamics influence not only institutional behavior but also the limits of what is perceived as legitimate or feasible within the state apparatus.

By analysing the interplay between institutional logics and political context, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of how counterterrorism policy is produced in contemporary France, and how states respond to complex intersections of security, gender, and governance.