Zainab Olaitan
Postdoctoral Fellow
Centre for International and Defence Policy
Robert Sutherland Hall, Rm 407
About
Dr. Zainab Monisola Olaitan is a Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) at Queen’s University. She is a political scientist with expertise in gender and representation, peace and conflict studies, and African politics. Her research focuses on locating women across different sectors with a central question: how are women represented in Africa? She is the author of Women’s Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers (Palgrave, 2024). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Pretoria, where she also taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Foreign Policy Analysis, International Relations Theory, Democratisation in Africa, and Conflicts in Africa. She also holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Pretoria as a 2019 Mastercard Foundation Scholar, a Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) Honors from the University of Cape Town as a 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholar, and a BSc (Hons) in Political Science with First Class from the University of Lagos. She has published widely in journals, book projects, and policy briefs on themes bordering on peace and conflict studies, gender and representation, and African politics. In 2022, she was awarded the Margaret McNamara Education Grant (MMEG) for impactful research on women.
Research Interests
- Women, Peace and Security
- Gender and Representation
- African Politics
Recent Publications
- F Viljoen, F Adegalu & ZM Olaitan. (2024). Special Focus: Implementation of decisions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. African Human Rights Law Journal, 24(2): 772-780.
- Olaitan, Z.M (2024). A Gendered Analysis of the Wave of Coups and Terrorism in the Sahel. Journal of Central and Eastern European African Studies, 4(2), 88-112.
- Olaitan, Z.M., & Isike, C.A. (2024). Gender Quotas as a Mechanism for Engendering Political Transformation in Africa. The African Review, 1-21.
- Olaitan, Z.M. (2023). The Representation of Women in African-led Peace Support Operations. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 26(4): 393-410.
- Olaitan, Z.M. 2023. Feminist Rethinking of the Representation of African Women in Peacebuilding: A Theoretical Analysis. African Journal of Gender, Society and Development, 12(1), 185-207.