Dur-e-Aden

Aden is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at University of Toronto. Her major fields are International Relations and Comparative Politics. Her PhD research focuses on comparing the recruits and non-recruits within the radical (far-right and Islamist) groups in Canada through a gendered lens. Her dissertation asks the following question: what stops someone from joining a radical group, even when all the risk factors are present? She is a SSHRC CGS Doctoral Scholar, a Junior Affiliate at the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS), and a Graduate Associate at University of Toronto’s Centre for Critical Development Studies. Along with her PhD studies, she is also working for the federal government. She has completed multiple student terms for federal departments such as Public Safety, Global Affairs, and the Department of National Defence. Her goal is to bridge the academic/policy divide by gaining experience in both domains.

She obtained her MA in Political Science from UBC, and her MA thesis was titled: “To drone or not to drone: A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of the US’s drone policy of targeted killing in the contexts of Pakistan and Yemen.” She also holds a BA in Political Science from UBC. Apart from academia, she is a member of an all-girls improv troupe, and sometimes moonlights as a stand-up comedian to decompress from security studies.