• Feminist international relations
• International Security
• Critical/Post International Development
• Post-conflict reconstruction
• Transitional Justice

MacKenzie’s research bridges feminist international relations, critical security studies and development studies. Her book, Female Soldiers in Sierra Leone: Sex, Security, and Post-Conflict Development examines women’s participation in the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone and the challenges and insecurities they faced during the post-conflict reintegration process. MacKenzie is also working on a collaborative project focused on the impacts of transitional justice mechanisms. In particular, the project looks at the long-term effects of the truth and reconciliation commission in Sierra Leone and the extent to which it achieved its lofty objectives.

Before joining the department, MacKenzie was a lecturer of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. In 2009 she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for International Security and the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Books

MacKenzie, Megan, Female Soldiers in Sierra Leone: Sex, Security, and Post-Conflict Development. New York: New York University Press, Fall 2012.

Articles

MacKenzie, Megan and Mohamed Sesay. “No Amnesty from/for the International: the Production and Promotion of TRCs as an International Norm in Sierra Leone.” International Studies Perspectives, May 2012.

MacKenzie, Megan. “Their Personal is Political, Not Mine: Feminism and Emotion” International Studies Review, July 2011.

MacKenzie, Megan. “De-Securitizing Sex: War Rape and the Radicalization of Development in Sierra Leone,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, Volume 12; 2 2010.

MacKenzie, Megan. “Women, Gender and Contemporary Armed Conflict,” The International Studies Compendium Project. Summer 2010.

MacKenzie, Megan. "Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone," Security Studies, issue 2, volume 18 2009.

MacKenzie, Megan. "Empowerment Boom or Bust? Assessing Women's Post-Conflict Empowerment Initiatives," Cambridge Review of International Affairs, issue 2, volume 22 2009.

Book Chapters

Baldi, Giulia and Megan MacKenzie. “Silent Identities: Children Born of War in Sierra Leone." in R. Charli Carpenter ed. Born of War: Protecting Children Born to Sexual Violence Survivors in Conflict Zones. (San Francisco: Kumarian Press, 2007)

MacKenzie, Megan. “Securitization and De-Securitization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone.” in Laura Sjoberg ed. Gender and International Security. (Critical Security Series, Routledge. 2009)

MacKenzie, Megan. “Security as the Exceptions: What Women Warriors Experience” in Christine Sylvester ed. Experiencing War. (Routledge: 2010)

Other Published Work

MacKenzie, Megan. The international politics of rape, sex and the family in Sierra Leone. Individual manuscript. (Institute for Security Studies: South Africa, September 2009)

Megan MacKenzie. “The ‘War Babies’ of Sierra Leone,” Edmonton Journal 30 August 2006. pA:3

Megan MacKenzie. “Human Security: The Key to Unifying the Fragmented Literature on Children and War.” War and Children Identity Project Annual Report. Norway: War and Children Identity Project, April 2003 p51-66

Selected Conference Papers

MacKenzie, Megan and Swati Parashar, “Making Feminist Sense of Political Violence” International Studies Association Annual Conference Montreal, 2011

MacKenzie, Megan, Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch, Mohamed Sesay, “Measuring Truth and Reconciliation? Lessons from Sierra Leone” International Studies Association Annual Conference New Orleans, 2010

MacKenzie, Megan “Violent Women, War Porn and International Politics: Making the Links,” International Studies Association Annual Conference New York, 2009

MacKenzie, Megan “Madonnas, Yoobas, Warriors, or Ideal Victims?: The Dismissal of Female Soldiers in Sierra Leone” and “The Tyranny of Empowerment: Post-Conflict and the Reconstruction of the Neoliberal Subject” International Studies Association Annual Conference San Francisco, 2008

MacKenzie, Megan, “The Regulation of the Family in Development Discourses,” Canadian Association of African Studies Conference Edmonton, Canada May 2008

MacKenzie, Megan, “Gendering Security Studies or Securing Gender Studies,” International Studies Association Workshop funded by the Security Studies Journal, Chicago, 2007.

MacKenzie, Megan, “From Soldiers to Citizens or Soldiers to Seamstresses: the Reintegration of Female Soldiers in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone,” International Studies Association Annual Conference Chicago, USA 2007.

MacKenzie, Megan, “More Than Just Saying the Right Words: Gender Policies in Post-Conflict Societies” "The Space Between: Theorizing Gender and International Relations/International Political Economy" Conference of the British International Studies Association Bristol, UK, June 2006.

MacKenzie, Megan, “Afterthoughts: Gender in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone”Canadian Association of African Studies Annual Conference, Montreal, 25 April 2006.

MacKenzie, Megan, “Who are you Calling a Victim?: the Portrayal of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone”Middle East and African Studies Inaugural Conference, University of Alberta, March 2006

MacKenzie, Megan, “Forgotten Warriors: the Reintegration of Girl Soldiers in Sierra Leone”The International Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego, 2006.