Hilary Matfess

Hilary Matfess is a PhD Candidate in Yale University’s Political Science department, where her research examines gender and conflict, with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her dissertation, Frontlines and the Home Front: Women’s Wartime Mobilization and Post-Conflict Political Representation examines whether variance in women’s post-conflict rights and representation can be traced to different types of wartime activities, like joining an armed group or forming a civil society organization. This project also examines the degree to which rebel groups are marked by a gendered division of labor and the significance of such a division for the trajectory of a rebel group.

Women and the War on Boko Haram, Hilary’s first book, was published by Zed Books in 2017. Her academic research has been published in International Security, Security Studies, and African Studies Review; she has also written for Newsweek, the Washington Post’s ‘Monkey Cage Blog,’ and World Politics Review, among others. She has worked as a consultant for USIP’s RESOLVE network, Strategy for Humanity, the International Republican Institute, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, among others. Hilary graduated with a joint BA/MA from Johns Hopkins and SAIS in 2015.