Biography

Rita Santos is junior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies. She is a PhD candidate in "International Politics and Conflict Resolution", School of Economics, University of Coimbra. She holds a MA degree in Peace Studies from the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and a BsC in International Relations, School of Economics, University of Coimbra. She is member of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). Over the last fifteen years she has worked on nine research projects in the fields of Feminism, IR and Security Studies; violence, gender and small arms; the agenda Women, Peace and Security; and more recently on media and political representation of migrants, refugees and "internal others". In addition to this, it is also worth mentioning her work in co-coordinating and co-editing the P@x Bulletin of the Peace Studies Group (2008-2014), and the several research and training works she has undertaken for inter/national think tanks and NGO such as AKTO (Portugal), NOREF (Norway), SWEFOR (Sweden), Promundo-US (now Equimundo) alongside evaluation and public policy drafting work for Instituto Promundo (Brazil), Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD, and Instituto Camões (Portugal). Her current research interests include: Feminism and IR/Security Studies; violence, gender and small arms; the agenda Women, Peace and Security; and gender equality promotion and development aid.