Profile

Dr. Okech is an Associate Professor of Political Sociology at SOAS, University of London where she teaches in the Department of Politics and International Studies. She also serves as Associate Director Equity and Accountability providing leadership on the university’s racial justice work. Dr Okech received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Nairobi, Kenya (2002) and her MA (2007) and PhD (2012) in Critical Gender Studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Okech is a feminist scholar activist whose teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality, security, and nation-state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. Her work is grounded in African feminist, queer, and Black internationalist thought as central frameworks for thinking about power and justice. Across her work is an exploration of racial justice and Black solidarity that focusses on the majority world and Africa to reimagine Pan African and Internationalist strategies for anti-racist, feminist, and queer liberation. Methodologically, Dr. Okech is invested in challenging hierarchies in knowledge production processes through an emphasis on decolonial approaches to research, teaching and more expansive understandings of knowledge production and transfer processes. Dr Okech continues to work with and support a range of international and African feminist movement support and multilateral organisations on projects that sit at the intersection of gender and security as well as broader organisational development concerns. Dr Okech is a member of the Human Sciences Research Council editorial board, the Board of Trustees of SOAS University of London, co-chair of the Just Associates Board and adjunct faculty with the African Leadership Centre at King’s College, London.