Kalia Hoechstetter

Masters Candidate
Political Science
McGill University

Kalia (Kali) Hoechstetter is a master’s student in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, specialising in international relations and research methods. Her research, supervised by Fernando G. Nuñez-Mietz, examines the intersection of international law, norms, and international security—specifically, whether and how international humanitarian law influences the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) by combatants during intrastate conflicts.

Kali has worked with several organisations focused on international law, sexual and gender-based violence, and human rights, including the United Nations Office on Sexual Violence in Conflict, MADRE (an international women’s rights organisation), and the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) in Sarajevo. She later returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a research fellow at a human rights organisation, where she conducted field-based research on international law and conflict-related sexual violence.

She holds a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Spanish from the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with a Certificate in International Relations and a Letter of Specialisation in Data Analytics.

Kali currently serves as the CIPSS Communications Coordinator (2024–2025).