Catherine Viens
Postdoctoral Fellow
About
Dr. Catherine Viens is a political scientist specializing in resource governance, environmental and social dimensions of extractivism, security studies, and gender analysis. Her research examines how large-scale projects shape local governance, security, and community resistance, drawing on fieldwork in India, South Africa, and Canada.
She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2023, distinction) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship (2023-2025) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
At the CIDP, her work focuses on conflict prevention, risk analysis, and the security governance dimensions of natural resource projects, in collaboration with Stéfanie von Hlatky and Andrew Grant, as well as on updating the Conflict Prevention Tool (CPT) through a gender lens.
She also serves as Director of the Risk and Security Management Program at the Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Action (OCCAH). She provides expertise to governments and NGOs on development, gender, humanitarian action, and security. She also offers media commentary on India’s domestic and foreign policy and is the Quebec director for the feminist NGO Fundación Lüvo.