Clara Perras
Clara Perras is a Doctoral Researcher at PRIF’s International Security Research Department. Her research interests include feminist approaches to peace and conflict studies, especially international cybersecurity, gender, peace and security, and feminist foreign policy.
Press photo
CV
| since 2024
Doctoral Researcher at PRIF
| 2023–2024
Research Assistant at PRIF in the Research Department Glocal Junctions
| 2019–2023
Master's degree in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt/M. and the Technical University Darmstadt
| 2022
Intern at the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the Human Rights sector project
| 2021
Study abroad at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth
| 2020–2023
Student assistant at PRIF in the program area International Security
| 2020–2023
Scholarship holder of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
| 2018–2021
Employee in the project “Ich bin wählerisch!” of Aktion Zivilcourage e.V. in Pirna
| 2017–2018
Internship at the Lesotho National Commission for UNSECO in Maseru, Lesotho
| 2015–2019
Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Sociology at the Technical University of Dresden
PhD Project
This paper-based dissertation investigates how gendered power logics shape and are shaped by global cybersecurity dynamics. Situated at the intersection of feminist security studies, critical cybersecurity studies, and feminist approaches to cybersecurity, it examines how cybersecurity threats and solutions are discursively constructed, how security practices are enacted, and how cybersecurity knowledge is produced in order to understand how these processes reflect, reproduce, or challenge gendered hierarchies and assumptions.
Methodologically, the project is grounded in interpretative and feminist research principles and employs a qualitative research design. It draws on a combination of methods, including discourse analysis and semi structured interviews, to analyse both dominant and less visible discourses, practices, and forms of knowledge production in global cybersecurity.
By centering feminist and marginalized perspectives, the project critically interrogates dominant, often gender-blind narratives and practices in the field of cybersecurity. Across three papers, the dissertation aims to contribute both theoretically to feminist and critical cybersecurity studies and empirically to a deeper understanding of how power, gender, and cybersecurity intersect across different spaces and actors.
New PRIF Spotlight on gender dynamics in AI and cybersecurity
Publications
- Everyday Resistance and (Violent) Backlash in Peacebuilding Challenge the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda
| 2026
Perras, Clara; Scheyer, Victoria; Wisotzki, Simone (2026): Everyday Resistance and (Violent) Backlash in Peacebuilding Challenge the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, in: Björkdahl, Annika; Lorentzen, Jenny; Skjelsbæk, Inger (eds), Backlash Against the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Contesting Gender Norms, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 79–97. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-10853-1_5 - Nachhaltiger Frieden: Gender, Diversität und Gewalt
| 2022
Brunke, Laura Isabella; Debiel, Tobias; Perras, Clara; Scheyer, Victoria; Ulbert, Cornelia; Wirkus, Lars; Wisotzki, Simone; Wunderlich, Carmen; Rinck, Patricia; Rosenberg, Carolin; Isikozlu, Elvan (2022): Nachhaltiger Frieden: Gender, Diversität und Gewalt, in: Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC)/Leibniz-Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK)/Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (IFSH)/Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden (INEF) (eds), Friedensgutachten 2022, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 69-88.
- 25 Years of Women, Peace and Security
| 2026
Perras, Clara; Wisotzki, Simone (eds) (2026): 25 Years of Women, Peace and Security. Promises, Backlash, and Feminist Reimagining, PRIF Blog Series on Feminist Peace Research, Frankfurt/M. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48809/25wps - Peace and Security without Disarmament? Disarmament and Arms Control on the Margins of the WPS Agenda
| 2026
Hauschild, Anna; Menninger, Jennifer; Perras, Clara (2026): Peace and Security without Disarmament? Disarmament and Arms Control on the Margins of the WPS Agenda, PRIF Blog.
Publication - Consensus, Contestations and Silences: Reflections on the Final Session of the OEWG on Information and Communications Technologies
| 2025
Perras, Clara (2025): Consensus, Contestations and Silences: Reflections on the Final Session of the OEWG on Information and Communications Technologies, PRIF Blog.
Publication - 25 Years of Women, Peace and Security: Between Promises, Backlash, and Feminist Reimagining
| 2025
Perras, Clara; Wisotzki, Simone (2025): 25 Years of Women, Peace and Security: Between Promises, Backlash, and Feminist Reimagining, PRIF Blog.
Publication - Cybersicherheitspolitische Positionen zur Bundestagswahl 2025
| 2025
Perras, Clara; Reinhold, Thomas (2025): Cybersicherheitspolitische Positionen zur Bundestagswahl 2025, PRIF Blog.
Publication - Backlash Against LGBTIQ+ Rights in Peacebuilding: Raising Awareness During Pride Month
| 2024
Perras, Clara (2024): Backlash Against LGBTIQ+ Rights in Peacebuilding: Raising Awareness During Pride Month, PRIF Blog.
Publication - The 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference: An opportunity to push gender responsive action
| 2024
Mannitz, Sabine; Perras, Clara; Wisotzki, Simone (2024): The 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference: An opportunity to push gender responsive action, PRIF Blog.
Publication - Beyond the Code. Unveiling Gender Dynamics in AI and Cybersecurity for International Security
| 2024
Ferl, Anna-Katharina; Perras, Clara (2024): Beyond the Code. Unveiling Gender Dynamics in AI and Cybersecurity for International Security, PRIF Spotlight, 2, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifspot2402 - Die rüstungskontrollpolitischen Initiativen Deutschlands – eine Erfolgsgeschichte?
| 2023
Lurz, Alexander; Baldus, Jana; Daase, Christopher; Ferl, Anna-Katharina; Jakob, Una; Lambach, Daniel; Lehmann, Tobias; Perras, Clara; Hoffberger-Pippan, Elisabeth; Reinhold, Thomas; Schmidt, Hans-Joachim; Schörnig, Niklas; Tkocz, Maximilian; Wisotzki, Simone (2023): Die rüstungskontrollpolitischen Initiativen Deutschlands – eine Erfolgsgeschichte?, Greenpeace-Studie.
Publication - Backlash Against and Resistance To Feminist Peacebuilding
| 2023
Demirci, Irem; Perras, Clara; Scheyer, Victoria; Wisotzki, Simone (2023): Backlash Against and Resistance To Feminist Peacebuilding, PRIF Report, 6, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2306
ISBN: 978-3-946459-90-3 - Eine feministische Außenpolitik für Deutschland?
| 2021
Scheyer, Victoria; Wisotzki, Simone; Perras, Clara (2021): Eine feministische Außenpolitik für Deutschland?, PRIF Blog.
Publication
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