Professor Aisling Swaine

Aisling Swaine is Professor of Peace, Security and International Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin.

Prior to joining UCD, she was Associate Professor of Gender and Security, Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Associate Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University, Washington DC. Aisling holds a PhD in law from the Transitional Justice Institute, School of Law, Ulster University. Aisling was awarded a €2million European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2023 for a research project that expands understanding of gendered harm, and specifically coercive control, in contexts of armed conflict and transitional justice.

Her research is interdisciplinary engaging with the fields of conflict-related gendered violence, feminist legal theory, transitional justice, gender peace and security and gender in global governance. In the context of the UN Generation Equality Forum in 2021, Aisling was named by A-Political as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People in global gender policy (and top ten on violence against women).

Aisling’s scholarship is driven by an intent towards applied impact, influenced by previous professional experience leading large-scale humanitarian and peacebuilding programmes globally, and advancing global policy in roles such as with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and UN Women HQ, New York.