POLITICAL SCIENTIST | INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & SECURITY | GENDER & CONFLICT

Hi, I’m Jacqueline (Jackie) Burns, a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and a former U.S. diplomat and foreign policy advisor.

My current research sits at the intersection of international and human security, institutions, and gender. I study the gendered ways in which international institutions interact with the agency of local women and other historically marginalized communities to shape conflict and peace outcomes. I am particularly interested in recentering the voices and lived experiences of conflict-affected women within the peace and security scholarship, as well as within policy conversations.

My research has been published in the Review of International Political Economy, Third World Quarterly, International Politics, and in edited volumes. I have also provided commentaries in public media outlets such as The New York Times and NPR. My current book project is support by The Alec Glasser Center for the Power of Music and Social Change at the University of California, Irvine.

Before embarking on my doctoral training in Political Science, I was a foreign policy advisor and diplomat. I spent seven years as an advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. I also served at the White House National Security Council designing and implementing the Young African Leaders Initiative, and spent nearly seven years as a Senior Policy Analyst at RAND.