William McInerney is a Research Officer at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security and a Co-Investigator on the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub. In these roles, McInerney co-leads the Story of the Hub, a participatory research project analysing key themes from across the Hub’s 38 projects in Afghanistan, Colombia, Kurdistan-Iraq, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Sri-Lanka, and Uganda. This work will inform the Hub’s forthcoming Global Gender Justice and Security Report and be used to develop an innovative feminist research methodology. William is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina where he works with students, residents, and surgeons on qualitative research methodologies and global health education in low- and middle-income countries.
William received his PhD as a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge where he served as the Co-Chair of the Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group. His doctoral research examined arts-based approaches to engaging boys and men in gender violence prevention. Prior to that, William was a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford, where he received his MA in Conflict Resolution. William’s research interests and expertise include: 1) gender justice with a focus on gender-based violence, engaging boys and men in gender equality, and the intersections of technology, violence, and prevention; 2) education with a focus on peacebuilding, international development, and global health; and 3) the arts with a focus on arts-based peacebuilding and arts-based research methods.
Recent research publications led by McInerney include two journal articles examining transdisciplinary and creative approaches to gender violence prevention education with boys and men. In Men’s Violence Prevention and Peace Education (2023) McInerney and Archer explore a novel application of Johan Galtung’s peace theories to men’s violence prevention programming, and in Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Justice Through Pro-Feminist Podcasts (2023), McInerney and Burrell analyse the benefits, challenges, and risks of using podcasting as a form of digital feminist education and mobilization for men. Furthermore, William is the co-editor of Innovations in Peace and Education Praxis (2023), an edited book examining peace interventions in educational settings, reflexivity in peace and education research, and alternative ontologies in peace and education practice. He is also the co-author of Das Buch, Das Jeder Mann Lesen Sollte [The Book that Every Man Should Read](2023), a trade book that uses a combination of research and personal stories to outline why and how men should support feminism and gender justice in their daily lives.
Prior to his PhD, McInerney worked as an educator and storyteller in a wide range of gender justice, violence prevention, and arts contexts. He was the executive director of an arts and peace education charity in the US, teaching and managing hundreds of school- and community-based programs for youth. Afterwards, William co-created and led the University of North Carolina’s first men’s violence prevention education program for undergraduate and graduate students. William is also an award-winning spoken word poet and has worked as a radio journalist using his distinct style of poetic reporting to highlight the human condition in the midst of conflict and crisis in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and across the US. His stories have been broadcast on National Public Radio, American Public Media, featured in a podcast he hosted on North Carolina Public Radio, turned into two theatrical productions, and featured throughout his teaching and research through arts-based pedagogies and methodologies.
Key Expertise:
gender-based violence; violence prevention; men and masculinities; peace and conflict studies; education; arts-based research
Select Publications:
McInerney, W. W. and Archer, D. T. (2023). Men’s Violence Prevention and Peace Education: Drawing on Galtung to Explore the Plurality of Violence(s), Peace(s), and Masculinities. Men and Masculinities, 26(1), 69-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X221149989
McInerney, W. W. and Burrell, S. R. (2023). Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Justice Through Pro-Feminist Podcasts. Masculinities and Social Change, 12(2), 160-183. https://doi.org/10.17583/mcs.10618
Archer, D. T., Hajir, B., and McInerney, W. W. (Eds.) (2023). Innovations in Peace and Education Praxis: Transdisciplinary Reflections and Insights. Routledge. London, UK. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003263111
Herr, A., Herr, V., McInerney, W. W., McKay, A., Peter, R., Speer, M., Steckl, M. (2023). Das Buch, Das Jeder Mann Lesen Sollte: In 4 Schritten zum Feministen [The Book that Every Man Should Read: 4 Steps to Becoming a Feminist]. Beltz. Weinheim, Germany.
McInerney, W. W., Hajir, B., and Archer, D. T. (2023). New Lenses: An Introduction to Innovations in Peace and Education Praxis. In Archer, D. T., Hajir, B., and McInerney, W. W. (Eds.). Innovations in Peace and Education Praxis: Transdisciplinary Reflections and Insights. Routledge. London, UK.
McInerney, W. W. and Cremin, H. (2023). Poetic peace education: a curriculum connecting the mind, body, and heart in workshop spaces. In Trifonas, P. and Jagger, S. (Eds.). International Handbooks of Education. Handbook of Curriculum Theory and Research. New York: Springer.
McInerney, W. W. and Rattanak, L. (2023). Peace, Violence, and Conflict Transformation. In Martin, S. and Suyheang, K. (Eds.) Women Peacebuilding Practitioner Textbook. Women Peace Makers: Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Hajir, B., Rasman, and McInerney, W. W. (2022). Digital translanguaging with Arabic-English transliteration (Arabizi): Insights from Syria and Lebanon. Cambridge Educational Research e-Journal, 9, 118-137. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.90556