Dr Sofia Patel is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow and has been a Research Associate in the Department of War Studies since completing her PhD there in 2023.

She is an interdisciplinary feminist researcher whose work sits at the nexus of feminist security studies, postcolonialism and critical terrorism studies. Her research focuses on the politics and governance of gender, violence and (in)security.

 

Research interests:

• Critical theory and security

• Postcolonial theory

• Feminist security studies

• UK Counterterrorism policy and governance

• Security and justice institutions

 

Publications (Selected):

Books

• Patel, S., (2026, forthcoming). Gendered Counterterrorism: Constructing women through Britain’s post-9/11 Policy and Practice, Routledge 2026

Peer Reviewed

• Patel, S., (2022). Representations of women and gender in DFID’s development-security-counterterrorism nexus, European Journal of International Security.

• Patel SP., & Westermann, J., (2018). Women and Islamic State terrorism: an assessment of how gender perspectives are integrated in countering violent extremism policy and practices, Security Challenges, Vol. 14, No.2, pp. 53-83

• Patel, SP., (2017). The Sultanate of Women: exploring female roles in perpetrating and preventing violent extremism, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, February 2017.
• Pantucci, R., & Patel, S., The ‘Franchising’ of Boko Haram, (2014) RUSI Newsbrief, Vol.34, No.3, May, RUSI: London.

Book Chapters

• Patel, S., Understanding women and Islamic State terrorism: where are we now?, In I. Kfir & J. Coyne eds., Counterterrorism Yearbook, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, March 2020.
• Patel, S., Mapping the Landscape of Right-Wing Extremism in Australia, in F. Atamuradova, S. MacDonald &R Burchill eds., Lessons from P/CVE Research: innovative methods, challenges and good practices, Hedayah, 2019.

Reports and Briefings

• Examining the relationship between gendered counterterrorism and international development, LSE, October 2022.

• Research Briefing: A common language? Emic perspectives on ‘extremism’, ‘radicalism’ and ‘radicalisation’, DARE Project, University of Manchester, September 2021.

• Research briefing: How important are ‘perceived inequalities’ to trajectories of (non)radicalisation?, DARE Project, University of Manchester, September 2021.

• The limitations of counterterrorism: where are the women?, Chatham House International Affairs blog, February 2021.

• Insecurity, gender and violent extremism in the era of covid-19, Monash University GPS institute, June 2020.
• Counterterrorism Yearbook 2018, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, March 2018 online

CONFERENCE PAPERS (selected)

• Oversight mechanisms overlooking gender: A feminist institutionalist approach to examining gender sensitivity and mainstreaming across Britain's counterterrorism oversight governance infrastructure, British International Studies Association, Belfast 2025

• How is gendered counterterrorism made? A feminist institutionalist approach to examining Britain's CONTEST strategy, International Studies Association, San Francisco, 2024

• How did gender-sensitive development work evolve after 9/11 and what factors influenced and shaped this evolution?, European International Studies Association, EWIS, Istanbul 2024.

• CONTESTING counterterrorism: A critical interrogation of gendered counterterrorism policy an practice in Britain post-9/11, International Studies Association, Montreal 2023

• Gendered institutions of counterterrorism, New Voices, King’s College London, 2020

• Women, gender and counterterrorism, University of Sydney, 2019