Bard College Berlin’s Feminist Collective and GHEA21 Collaborate on the Women, Peace and Security Program

Developed as a collaboration between the Bard Feminist Collective at Bard College Berlin and the GHEA21 network, the Women, Peace, and Security Studies Project encourages participants “to critically examine why, despite decades of advocacy for women’s inclusion in peace processes, the global landscape of conflict continues to grow increasingly militarized and destructive — both to human life and to the environment.”

Hammayl Shammas ‘26 and Isabella Letona ‘26 along with other members of the Bard Feminist Collective began the WPS Studies Project in the light of the 25th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 dedicated to women, peace and security. “We wanted to see what progress the agenda has made,” says Shammas.

The participants of the program engage with feminist perspectives on security and diplomacy through intensive readings and analyses. The program will culminate in a conference, where participants will collaborate on drafting a policy resolution addressing the implementation gaps in Resolution 1325.

The project emerged out of cooperation among many individuals, including Marion Böeker, a German women's rights leader and human rights expert who served as the 16th President of the International Alliance of Women, Dr. Agata Lisiak, Professor of Migration Studies, and Dr. Elena Stavrevska, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol and a former lecturer at BCB. “Over the course of the last six months, we developed a curriculum, got it approved, and now we are officially running it,” Shammas adds. 

Shammas first meaningfully connected with the network at the Get Engaged Conference which took place in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 2024. The year after, she presented the Bard Feminist Collective at the same conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. “The Bard Feminist Collective was presented at that conference and from there I just pitched the idea for the project to the network coordinators at GHEA21,” she says. “It was really impressive to see such a large scale program initiated by a student,” says Hesham Moadamani, BCB’s Civic Engagement Coordinator.

“It's strange to think that only 25 years ago was the first time when people finally acknowledged that women and gender minorities are more marginalized in conflict zones than other people,” Shammas says. She describes the main goal of the WPS Studies Project as critical rethinking of the WPS agenda adapted to specific national and local contexts. “I can talk from my own perspective in Pakistan. It's so hard to even imagine that something like a WPS agenda will ever be incorporated in the feminist foreign policy because the politicians and the global world order right now benefits off of the fact that there's this constant fear mongering and security dilemmas that keep these existing structures in place,” Shammas adds. 

An important part of this project is also its focus on actionable implementation. The participants of the project will present their final findings at the German foreign office. “I was really impressed by the framework and call to action that is a part of the program,” Moadamani says. “For me, that's actually what successful civic engagement is,” he continues. Additionally, all students who successfully finish the Women, Peace and Security Studies project will receive a certification of completion from GHEA21.

Shammas remains highly appreciative of BCB’s Civic Engagement Office and its coordinators. Moadamani emphasizes that the GHEA21 network is a new institution which has been built primarily for students and can be shaped in various ways. “Anybody is welcome to visit us at the Civic Engagement office to explore those trajectories,” he adds. 

By: Hana Trenčanová '28

Post Date: 04-10-2026