Madita is a doctoral researcher in the War Studies Department at King’s College, London. Her research is situated in the fields of feminist postcolonial International Relations, memory, colonial histories and foreign policy. She is also an associate fellow at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). Her PhD project is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Before coming to King’s College, Madita gained experience in research, teaching and feminist civil society advocacy work. She was a member of the research group “IN:EX: The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion” and the project GBV-MIG at the University of Vienna where she worked on gender-based violence. She also conducted research on EU border security and migration politics as well as the UN Security Council’s Agenda on Women, Peace and Security. Madita also has worked in the German NGO-sector as a policy advisor on international gender equality and feminist foreign policy and continues to provide expertise to the German Federal Foreign Office on the Women, Peace and Security as a representative of WILPF Germany.

Madita has extensive experience in moderating, speaking and convening workshops and events and is passionate about teaching feminist and international politics.

She is an executive board member of the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (AFK e.V.) and part of the “Feminisms and Wars” Network, funded by NordForsk.

Madita holds an MSc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in European Studies from Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg. 

Research Interests: 

• Feminist and postcolonial theories in International Relations
• Memory
• India-Germany relations
• German colonial histories
• Feminist Foreign Policy
• Feminist Security Studies
• EU border security and migration politics
  Gender-based violence 

Thesis Project:

Ghosts of one’s imperial past? Women, memory and gender in everyday German foreign policy in India

This project asks how legacies of empire continued to shape German foreign policy towards India after independence in 1947. Through Indian, Nepali and German women’s memory of navigating the everyday of German cultural and economic foreign policy presence in postcolonial Delhi, it seeks to understand how intersecting social relations developed in and through everyday German foreign policy against the complex global political background of the 20^th century. The project contributes to research on women’s various roles in male-dominated foreign policies in reference and contrast to the political archive and dives into a particularly underrepresented part of German (post-)imperial history and memory.  

Supervisors:

• Dr Amanda Chisholm

• Dr Maeve Ryan 

Research Articles:

• Sachseder, J.; Stachowitsch, S.; Standke-Erdmann, M. (2024). Entangled Vulnerabilities: Gendered and Racialised Bodies and Borders in EU External Border Security, Geopolitics, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2023.2291060
• Standke-Erdmann, M., & Viehoff, A. (2020). A world transformed by climate justice. New Perspectives, 28(3), 347 - 365. https://doi.org/10.1177/2336825X20935235
• Standke-Erdmann, M. & Scheyer, V. (2020) Exposing Flaws in the Logic(s) of Nuclear Deterrence as an International Security Strategy – A Feminist Postcolonial Perspective. Ethik und Militär, 2020/1, http://www.ethikundmilitaer.de/en/full-issues/20201-nuclear-deterrence/standke-erdmann-scheyer-exposing-flaws-in-the-logics-of-nuclear-deterrence-as-an-international-security-strategy/

Book chapters: 

• Standke-Erdmann, M.; Pieper, M.; Rosenberger, S. (2022). Countering ‘Their’ Violence: Framing Gendered Violence Against Women Migrants in Austria. In: Freedman, J., Sahraoui, N., Tastsoglou, E. (eds) Gender-Based Violence in Migration. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 59 - 83, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07929-0_3

Policy papers and blog entries

• Standke-Erdmann, Madita. 2023. “Feministische Außenpolitik – Eine „unmögliche Allianz?” Wie Steht Es Um Die Deutsche Feministische Außenpolitik? Friedensforum, 5/2023. Netzwerk Friedenskooperative. https://www.friedenskooperative.de/friedensforum/artikel/feministische-aussenpolitik-eine-unmoegliche , [in German].

• Gyan-Addo, L.; Standke-Erdmann, M.; Stachowitsch, S. (2021): The Women, Peace and Security Agenda in EU Border Management, Working Paper 110/June 2021, Österreichisches Institut für Internationale Politik, https://www.oiip.ac.at/publikation/the-women-peace-and-security-agenda-in-eu-border-management

• Bernading, N.; Menninger, J.; Provan, A.; Scheyer, V.; Standke-Erdmann, M. (2021): How Militarized is Germany’s Foreign Policy? Center for Feminist Foreign Policy and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2021-09/CFFP-HeinrichBoll-EN-Final2.pdf
• Standke-Erdmann, M. (2021): An Intersectional Perspective on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Policy Analysis. Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brussels, https://eu.boell.org/en/intersectionality-refugee-women

• Standke-Erdmann, M. (2020): Germany Should Acknowledge and Counter Violence against Refugee Women at the EU’s Borders. Peace Lab Blog (GPPi) on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Impulse für den dritten Nationalen Aktionsplan der Bundesregierung, https://peacelab.blog/2020/07/germany-should-acknowledge-and-counter-violence-against-refugee-women-at-the-eus-borders

Reviews

• Standke-Erdmann, M. (2022) Review – Feminist Solutions for Ending War; Edited by Megan MacKenzie and Nicole Wegner Pluto Press, 2021, https://www.e-ir.info/pdf/98778 . 

Madita Standke-Erdmann PURE Research Profile here. 

Research Centres & Groups

Research Centre on International Relations

Trauma-Centered Study Group