Lorraine Dowler's research is located at the intersection of several different theoretical frameworks that challenge common understandings of militarization.
She is examining the role of militarization in two distinct research projects. The first is a book project titled Women Under Fire. This project evaluates the discounting of women’s bodies as substandard to those of men as a way of disallowing women the benefits of absolute citizenship. In this book, Dowler demonstrates how the discounting of women’s contributions to the U.S. space program, to the U.S. military and to municipal fire-fighting have not only excluded women from the nationalist portrayals of heroism, but also the rewards of democratic citizenship. By examining these compelling experiences in concert reader's see how the counting/discounting of women is a political issue dependent on global forces such as the Cold War and the War on Terror.
My second project was sparked during my initial research stay (1991) in Belfast, Northern Ireland when I was conducting research, which was focused on issues of gender and nationalism. At that time tourism was more on an informal basis, consisting of the occasional tourist walking up the Falls Road (IRA stronghold) to photograph resistance landmarks such as Divis Flats, the site of many violent outbreaks, the peace line and political murals. Since then, due to international interest in the peace process, formal tourism has been on the rise, leading to the development of rival tourism initiatives by both the government and local communities. The research questions if it is possible to have a meaningful peace if communities maintain a conflict in the symbolic landscape. The work also evaluates the changing identity of the tourist as a possible positive force for social change.
