Meredith Loken is an Associate Professor (Universitair Docent 1) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam where she is a member of the Transnational Configurations, Conflict and Governance research group. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
She researches contemporary political violence, specifically focused on the gender dynamics of armed organizations and civil wars. Her work explores the causes and effects of women's participation in armed groups, gender-based targeting during conflict, and non-state armed group messaging and narrative-building around political violence. She is presently researching and writing a writing a book about the history of republican media and publicity, including the role of women and gendered narratives, in the North of Ireland.
She is a co-Principal Investigator for the Women's Activities in Armed Rebellion (WAAR) Project, a multi-methods research project comprising a qualitative handbook and cross-national dataset documenting women’s participation over 370 rebel organisations operating between 1946-2015. More information on her research and teaching can be found here.