Phoebe Donnelly

Focus Areas: Gender, International Security, Countering/preventing violent extremism (C/PVE), International Organizations

Phoebe Donnelly is Head of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program and a Senior Fellow at the International Peace Institute. She also is on the Research Advisory Council of the RESOLVE Research Network on violent extremism at the United States Institute of Peace and a Visiting Fellow at Feinstein International Center. Dr. Donnelly recently completed a fellowship at the Women and Public Program at Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Donnelly’s doctoral dissertation on forced marriage by rebel groups won the Peter Ackerman Award for the outstanding doctoral dissertation at The Fletcher School at Tufts University in 2019. At IPI, in addition to her role guiding their WPS and gender work, Phoebe led a research project on the sexual abuse of peacekeepers and writes about gender and reintegration and the intersection of gender and violent extremism. Phoebe’s research has been featured in several media outlets including BBC Radio, CNN, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post.

Previously, Dr. Donnelly was the Stanley Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellow at Williams College where she taught courses on gender and conflict and security in Africa. Her past experience also includes serving as the Associate Director of the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and as a Legislative Correspondent for Senator Richard Blumenthal. Phoebe received her PhD in International Relations from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Phoebe also earned a Master of Arts in Law in Diplomacy from The Fletcher School in 2013 and a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008.

Education

• PhD in International Relations, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
• MA in Law and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School Tufts University
• BA, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Honors and Awards

• Peter Ackerman Dissertation Award, 2019