Amarens Breteler
PhD
Political Science
Amarens is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at The University of Melbourne. Her thesis investigates how sexual economies emerge alongside neoliberal development projects in post-conflict societies. Regionally, she is interested in Latin America and the role of globalisation in armed conflict in this part of the world. She is fluent in Spanish, Dutch, Friesian, and English. Amarens has contributed to a wide range of research projects and university activities as a Research Assistant at RMIT University, The University of Adelaide, and The University of New South Wales. She is passionate about researching gendered phenomena from a Feminist Political Economy perspective and warmly welcomes conversations about future collaborations.
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Thesis
Sexual Extractivism: The Global Political Economy of Congregational Prostitution in Post-Conflict Societies
Abstract: While contemporary peace agreements increasingly include ameliorative policies for women impacted by armed conflict, the neoliberal development strategies embedded in these agreements frequently generate conditions that reproduce gendered exploitation. Using a Feminist Political Economy approach, Amarens' research examines how sexual economies emerge alongside post-conflict reconstruction projects to understand why violence against women increases after the official cessation of conflict. She conducts fieldwork in Colombia, where women’s sexual exploitation has more than doubled in recent years despite the 2016 peace deal that included numerous gender provisions. As all peace-building strategies share similar neoliberal prescriptions – open markets, privatisation, and fiscal restraint – the findings of this doctoral project elucidate how these models can inadvertently entrench gendered vulnerabilities on a global scale. |
Research interests
- Feminist theory
- Critical global political economy
- International relations
- Peace and conflict
- Political violence