Katherine Mann

Katherine (Katie) Mann is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Cambridge Trust Scholar. Her research explores questions at the intersection of peace and conflict, international development, democracy, and gender politics. Her first book, Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics (Oxford University Press, with Saskia Brechenmacher), analyzes international aid for women’s empowerment in politics. She also studies dynamics of conflict-related sexual violence and rebel governance—and their impact on wartime and post-conflict politics. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Colombia, she is developing her second book project, which examines how and why rebel organizations regulate gender-based violence and broader gender relations during civil war. Her research and commentary have been published by Oxford University Press and in policy outlets including Foreign Policy and Just Security. At W&L, Mann teaches courses on global politics, peace and conflict, gender and politics, and qualitative research methods.

Previously, Mann was a policy researcher in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was also a Visiting Researcher at Columbia University and the Universidad de los Andes, a Managing Editor of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and a Junior Fellow at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute. Alongside her academic research, she has collaborated with non-governmental organizations working to prevent political violence and support civic activism. She received her MPhil from the University of Oxford and dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Georgia.