Ray Acheson is a visiting researcher from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, where they lead the disarmament program Reaching Critical Will. WILPF was founded in 1915 to challenge militarism, patriarchy, and capitalism as root causes of war. Ray continues this work today by bringing an intersectional feminist approach to disarmament and antiwar activism. Ray represents the organization on the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and working with governments to negotiate and adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Among other things, Ray also works to prevent the development of fully autonomous weapons with Stop Killer Robots, to end the use of explosive weapons in cities with the International Network on Explosive Weapons, and to challenge the international arms trade and war profiteering. Ray has an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research. They are author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages (Haymarket Books, 2022).
Publications
Ray Acheson, Feminist Solution: Draw on Feminist, Queer, and Indigenous Theory and Experiences to Support Movements to End Nuclear Weapons, in Megan Mackenzie (ed.), Feminist Solutions for Ending War, forthcoming.
Ray Acheson, Patriarchy and the Bomb: Banning Nuclear Weapons Against the Opposition of Militarist Masculinities, in Betty A. Reardon and Asha Hans (eds.), The Gender Imperative: Human Security vs. State Security, 2nd Edition, Routledge, 2019.
Ray Acheson, The Nuclear Ban and the Patriarchy: a Feminist Analysis of Opposition to Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons, Critical Studies on Security, 7 (1), 2019.
Ray Acheson, Impacts of the Nuclear Ban: How Outlawing Nuclear Weapons is Changing the World, in Joseph A. Camilleri, Michael Hamel-Green, and Fumihiko Yoshida (eds.), The 2017 Nuclear Ban Treaty: A New Path to Nuclear Disarmament, Routledge, 2018
Ray Acheson, Impacts of the Nuclear Ban: How Outlawing Nuclear Weapons is Changing the World, Global Change, Peace & Security, 30 (2), 2018.
Ray Acheson, A Feminist Critique of the Atomic Bomb, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, October 12, 2018.
Ray Acheson, To Preserve Our Humanity, We Must Ban Killer Robots, The Nation, October 1, 2018.
Ray Acheson, How Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons Changed the World, The Nation, July 6, 2018.
Ray Acheson, Loreta Castro, Beatrice Fihn, Linnet Ngayu and Carlos Umaña, Rebuilding the Antinuclear Movement, The Nation, June 1, 2018.
Ray Acheson, The Nuclear Weapons Ban and the NPT, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 15, 2017.
Ray Acheson, Women and the Ban the Bomb Movement, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 15, 2017.
Ray Acheson, Modernization of Nuclear Weapons: Aspiring to Indefinite Retention?, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 68 (5), 2012.
Ray Acheson, Beyond the 2010 NPT Review Conference: What’s Next for Nuclear Disarmament?, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 66 (6), 2010.