Books by Audrey Alejandro
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This book is about European IR theoretical traditions, their origins, and key figures. Theorizing... more This book is about European IR theoretical traditions, their origins, and key figures. Theorizing is among the most important activities that take place within scientific disciplines. Scholars therefore routinely talk/debate about the discipline of IR and its theories, theories are often used to form the pedagogical backbone of IR and theories are also a key part of scholarly identities. Over time, theories crystalize in to schools of thought, strands of theorizing and theoretical traditions. This book and the volumes that will follow focus on the origins and trajectories of theoretical traditions, and key figures of IR thought in Europe in the 20th Century. The authors are situated in Europe, and it is thus the origins and trajectories of European theoretical traditions, its intellectual history and contemporary forms of theoretical knowledge today, that are on the agenda. In order to achieve this ambitious aim, we opt for a transnational sociological history approach, thus going beyond the national lens through which IR has been predominantly studied. The series will have an integrative function and contribute to a globalized discourse on IR as a discipline. The key benefits of this first volume is that it outlines IR theoretical traditions for the first time ever, provides a novel framework for exploring IR’s theories, and contributes to define and strengthen the European identity of IR. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars of IR.
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Articles by Audrey Alejandro
Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences, 2024
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Global Studies Quarterly, 2024
In collecting data, analyzing data, or writing-up, researchers can find that the concepts they ha... more In collecting data, analyzing data, or writing-up, researchers can find that the concepts they had decided to use and the available concepts in the literature are mismatched with what they seek to explore and/or explain. This misalignment between concepts and observations can create analytical and theoretical blind spots, foreclosing the opportunity to delve deeper into and articulate the specificities and complexities of what they observe. Researchers experiencing such misalignment of concepts need strategies to help them reconceptualize existing concepts, which we hope to provide here to help researchers develop more nuanced and better-adapted concepts that provide more analytical, theoretical, and empirical leverage. This article suggests a four-step process of reconceptualization, a method for developing and iterating the concepts we employ in designing, conducting, and writing-up research. This method of reconceptualization addresses a gap in the existing literature on concepts by providing a new, practical, accessible, and pedagogically-oriented solution for this problem of misaligned concepts. We illustrate how to implement reconceptualization by working with the concept of 'local' and offer two examples of how we reconceptualized this concept in two projects in Dominica and Moldova. We show how, by reconceptualizing an initial concept, we can move forward in developing new and reconceptualized concepts. Hence, this article also offers two concepts: 'local-international' and 'internationalized local', that are more attuned to what we observe and richer in their empirical and analytical potential.
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International Relations, 2024
In 2007, the WHO and UNAIDS established male circumcision as the first surgery ever implemented a... more In 2007, the WHO and UNAIDS established male circumcision as the first surgery ever implemented as a preventive health policy, via their Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) anti-HIV programme that delivered 18.6 million circumcisions in Southern and Eastern Africa by 2017. This article investigates how this genital ritual became a global health policy taking discourse as the entry point. Based on a mixed-method research design, we argue that global health International Organisations are at the forefront of the latest stage of a meaning-making process started in the 19th century: the transnational resemantisation of male circumcision into a medical procedure. First, we introduce the concept of resemantisation to the study of International Relations. Second, we conduct a computational discourse analysis of 396 VMMC policy documents and demonstrate the discursive mechanisms through which they play a role in this process. Third, we combine primary and secondary data to trace the transnational history of the circulation of medicalised male circumcision until its implementation as a global health policy. Overall, we introduce resemantisation as an analytical and methodological framework that nuances our understanding of meaning-making processes and builds bridges between the study of discourses and practices.
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International Journal of Communication, 2024
How do American true crime podcasts represent women victims of murder? Emerging research shows th... more How do American true crime podcasts represent women victims of murder? Emerging research shows that the podcast storytelling format can produce more personal and compassionate discourse, potentially countering the overall harmful representations of thetrue crime genre. However, research focusing on the representation of women victims of violence in the podcast genre has so far been limited. Based on a discourse analysis of 14popular true crime podcast episodes released between 2014 and 2021, we identified that the murdered women in the podcasts are represented as part of a dehumanized group who are complicit in their deaths and who serve as a cautionary tale for other women.Based on these findings, we argue that although podcasts’ discursive dynamics can potentially introduce alternative representations of the victims based on social group identification and self-reflexivity, overall, American true crime podcasts align with dominant representations and discourses about stigmatized victims.
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PS: Political Science and Politics, 2024
This study explores the application of role-play simulations (RPS) in addressing complex challeng... more This study explores the application of role-play simulations (RPS) in addressing complex challenges (e.g., the climate crisis) beyond traditional educational settings. Drawing from pilot simulations involving 12 scientific experts and 12 policy makers, the article identifies three key challenges in conducting RPS with elite participants and provides practical strategies for overcoming them. Namely, the article emphasizes the importance of adapting the scenarios to sociopolitical contexts, choosing an ethical recruiting method to ensure inclusivity, and managing group diversity while maintaining a balance between the playfulness and the seriousness of the simulation. Overall, our study underscores the potential of RPS to foster dialogue between scientific and political actors and provides practical guidance for their effective use.
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Management Communication Quarterly, 2024
Following criticism about the quality of writing in management communication and organization stu... more Following criticism about the quality of writing in management communication and organization studies, this Forum presents arguments for change in how scholarly knowledge is communicated. The expectation today seems to be that, to get published, academic writing requires monologic and complex ways of expression. However, using formulaic and reader-exclusive language in publications limits their accessibility to a wider readership, including not only more diverse members of the disciplinary community-such as non-Anglophone scholars and junior researchers-but also those we study and write about. In our respective contributions, we argue for more meaningful communication between writers and readers achieved through writers adopting reflexive practices when crafting their texts for publication. Specifically, we suggest considering reflexivity through the following concepts: conformity and individuality, socialization, tenderness, and respect. These, we argue, help make our academic writing more accessible and meaningful.
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Environmental Science and Policy, 2024
Literature has demonstrated the benefits of role-play simulations (RPS) for decision-making and s... more Literature has demonstrated the benefits of role-play simulations (RPS) for decision-making and social learning in the field of climate change and environmental policy. Despite growing interest, step-by-step guidelines are still rare when it comes to the practical design and implementation of RPS, which hinders the adoption and implementation of this promising approach. This article aims to facilitate the development of RPS by proposing a stepby-step framework for designing role-play simulations around three stagesbefore, during, and after the simulation. To develop the methodology, we use as a starting point a pilot simulation on decision-making and knowledge production in contexts of uncertainty and complexity. Focusing on negative emission technologies in Switzerland, the pilot simulation involved 12 scientists and 12 politicians who role-played each other for half a day. Overall, we propose an actionable framework for RPS designed to facilitate cooperation between groups with different socialisations, timelines, and imperatives towards more informed and collaborative decisionmaking practices. Doing so, this article contributes to making RPS more accessible to a broad audience as a method supporting cooperation between science and policy in the field of climate and environmental politics and beyond.
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Qualitative Inquiry, 2023
The growing interest in combining different approaches to qualitative text and discourse analysis... more The growing interest in combining different approaches to qualitative text and discourse analysis has so far not been met with adapted methodological resources. This article aims to address this gap by developing a methodological framework for combining qualitative text and discourse analysis. First, we introduce four traditions that we identify as four families of methods of text/discourse analysis with different logics: Discourse Analysis, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, Thematic Analysis, and Qualitative Content Analysis. Second, we review the literature to show how these methods have been combined across disciplines and case studies. Third, we build upon existing literature to unpack the benefits and challenges of multi-method text/discourse analysis, and offer strategies to help navigate the problems that may arise. Overall, this article introduces multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis (MMQTDA) as a methodological framework to provide guidance and offer solid foundations for an emerging methodological conversation in qualitative text research.
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European Political Science, 2023
Altmetrics are an emerging form of bibliometric measurement that capture the online dimension of ... more Altmetrics are an emerging form of bibliometric measurement that capture the online dimension of scholarly exchange. Against the backdrop of both a higher education landscape increasingly focused on quantifying research productivity and impact, as well as literature emphasising the need to address gender bias in the discipline, we consider whether and how altmetrics (re)produce gendered dynamics in political science. Using a novel dataset on the Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) of political science research, we investigate two questions: Do AAS vary by gender? And how do AAS relate to gendered social media dynamics? We find that AAS reproduce gendered dynamics found in disciplinary publication and citation practices. For example, journal articles authored exclusively by female scholars score 27% lower on average than exclusively male-authored outputs. However, men are also more likely to write articles with an AAS of zero. These patterns are shaped by the presence of high-scoring male "superstars" whose research attracts much online attention. Complementing existing scholarship, we show that the AAS closely overlaps with virality dynamics on Twitter. We suggest that these gendered dynamics may be hidden behind the seemingly neutral, technical character of altmetrics, which is worrisome where they are used to evaluate scholarship.
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International Studies Review, 2022
open access article: https://academic.oup.com/isr/article/24/3/viac025/6585252?searchresult=1
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International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2021
Following qualitative researchers' growing interest in reflexivity, a body of scholarship has eme... more Following qualitative researchers' growing interest in reflexivity, a body of scholarship has emerged that aims to turn informal practices for reflexivity into methods that can be learnt and taught alongside other research practices. This literature, however, has focused on helping researchers become more reflexive toward their situatedness and positionality, rather than toward their use of language and its effects on knowledge productiona process I refer to as 'linguistic reflexivity'. This article addresses this gap by formalising a method for 'problematising categories', an informal approach familiar to qualitative researchers as a promising solution to the analytical and ethical blinders that result from scholars' unconscious use of language. I proceed in three steps. First, I review the literature to show the analytical, empirical and ethical rationales behind this approach and offer a definition of problematising categories as the practice of making conscious how socio-linguistic units of categorisation unconsciously organise our perception and can represent a problem for knowledge production. This practice, I argue, enables us to decentre ourselves from the taken-for-granted nature of those categories. Second, I develop a three-stage research method for problematising categories: noticing 'critical junctures' when problematisation is called for, identifying the categorical problem through sensitising questions and reconstructing an alternative. Third, I demonstrate how problematising categories contributes to the research process by applying this method to my experience in problematising the binary pair 'local' versus 'international' in a research project on the environmental impact of Chinese investment in the Senegalese fishery sector. I show that problematising categories leads to more rigorous empirical findings and nuanced analysis in a way that is feasible within the frame of qualitative research projects. Overall, this article expands the practical tools for linguistic reflexivity and heeds the methodological call to make conscious and explicit choices for every dimension of our research.
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Journal of International Relations and Development, 2021
How can we explain Central and Eastern Europe’s (CEE) relative absence in the ‘worlding Internati... more How can we explain Central and Eastern Europe’s (CEE) relative absence in the ‘worlding International Relations’(IR) conversation? What does provincializing the discipline from CEE might look like? I argue that CEE has been relatively neglected in the ‘worlding IR’ literature 1) due to local factors, 2) because it might have been turned into an ‘unimportant other’, 3) and because the history of the region challenges the macro-categories – ‘West/non-West’, ‘North/South’, ‘core/periphery’ – that structure this conversation. I show how the special issue offers promising endeavors to provincialize IR that are transferable to other contexts, for instance small states. Doing so, I use CEE as a case study to build a bridge between the special issue and the different debates it contributes to – making IR a less Eurocentric/ parochial field, decentering European IR from the IR produced in UK/Scandinavian countries, and exploring the conditions of formulating critiques that produces something other than the problems they denounce.
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International Politics Reviews, 2021
Published in the Forum on 'International Relations as a geoculturally pluralistic field', Valerie... more Published in the Forum on 'International Relations as a geoculturally pluralistic field', Valerie de Koeijer & Robbie Shilliam (eds.) International Politics Review.
Article fully available online here: https://rdcu.be/colKT
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European Journal of International Relations, 2021
How to implement reflexivity in practice? Can the knowledge we produce be
emancipatory when our d... more How to implement reflexivity in practice? Can the knowledge we produce be
emancipatory when our discourses recursively originate in the world we aim to challenge? Critical International Relations (IR) scholars have successfully put reflexivity on the agenda based on the theoretical premise that discourse and knowledge play a socio-political role. However, academics often find themselves at a loss when it comes to implementing reflexivity due to the lack of adapted methodological and pedagogical
material. This article shifts reflexivity from meta-reflections on the situatedness of research into a distinctive practice of research and writing that can be learned and taught alongside other research practices. To do so, I develop a methodology based on discourse: reflexive discourse analysis (RDA). Based on the discourse analysis of our own discourse and self-resocialisation, RDA aims to reflexively assess and transform our socio-discursive engagement with the world, so as to render it consistent with our intentional socio-political objectives. RDA builds upon a theoretical framework integrating discourse theory to Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus for reflexivity and practices illustrated in the works of Comte and La Boétie. To illustrate this methodology, I used this very article as a recursive performance. I show how RDA enabled me to identify implicit discriminative mechanisms within my discourse and transform them
into an alternative based on love, to produce an article more in line with my sociopolitical objectives. Overall, this article turns reflexivity into a critical methodology for social change and demonstrates how to integrate criticality methodologically into research and writing.
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European Review of International Studies, 2017
Since the 1980s, International Relations (IR) scholars have emphasised the ‘geoepistemological’ d... more Since the 1980s, International Relations (IR) scholars have emphasised the ‘geoepistemological’ dynamics underpinning the global structuration of discipline diversity. By focusing mainly on the study of ‘American’ and ‘non-Western’ IR, this debate has given little attention to the voices, perspectives, and practices of those scholars who study IR in Europe. This article aims reflexively to question the identity dynamics of the marginalisation of European cases in the debate about diversity and hegemony in International Relations. Using anthropological and sociological tools, such as the idea of ‘misery of position’ developed by Pierre Bourdieu, it explores the postcolonial and eurocentric narratives that can explain this situation, while also putting forward why assuming a balanced ethnocentric stance would provide a more appropriate relational model to promote pluralism.
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in Hellmann, Gunther and Morten, ValbjØrn. (2017) Problematizing Global Challenges: Recalibrating... more in Hellmann, Gunther and Morten, ValbjØrn. (2017) Problematizing Global Challenges: Recalibrating the “Inter” in IR-Theory. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1093/isr/vix009
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Books by Audrey Alejandro
Articles by Audrey Alejandro
Article fully available online here: https://rdcu.be/colKT
emancipatory when our discourses recursively originate in the world we aim to challenge? Critical International Relations (IR) scholars have successfully put reflexivity on the agenda based on the theoretical premise that discourse and knowledge play a socio-political role. However, academics often find themselves at a loss when it comes to implementing reflexivity due to the lack of adapted methodological and pedagogical
material. This article shifts reflexivity from meta-reflections on the situatedness of research into a distinctive practice of research and writing that can be learned and taught alongside other research practices. To do so, I develop a methodology based on discourse: reflexive discourse analysis (RDA). Based on the discourse analysis of our own discourse and self-resocialisation, RDA aims to reflexively assess and transform our socio-discursive engagement with the world, so as to render it consistent with our intentional socio-political objectives. RDA builds upon a theoretical framework integrating discourse theory to Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus for reflexivity and practices illustrated in the works of Comte and La Boétie. To illustrate this methodology, I used this very article as a recursive performance. I show how RDA enabled me to identify implicit discriminative mechanisms within my discourse and transform them
into an alternative based on love, to produce an article more in line with my sociopolitical objectives. Overall, this article turns reflexivity into a critical methodology for social change and demonstrates how to integrate criticality methodologically into research and writing.
Article fully available online here: https://rdcu.be/colKT
emancipatory when our discourses recursively originate in the world we aim to challenge? Critical International Relations (IR) scholars have successfully put reflexivity on the agenda based on the theoretical premise that discourse and knowledge play a socio-political role. However, academics often find themselves at a loss when it comes to implementing reflexivity due to the lack of adapted methodological and pedagogical
material. This article shifts reflexivity from meta-reflections on the situatedness of research into a distinctive practice of research and writing that can be learned and taught alongside other research practices. To do so, I develop a methodology based on discourse: reflexive discourse analysis (RDA). Based on the discourse analysis of our own discourse and self-resocialisation, RDA aims to reflexively assess and transform our socio-discursive engagement with the world, so as to render it consistent with our intentional socio-political objectives. RDA builds upon a theoretical framework integrating discourse theory to Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus for reflexivity and practices illustrated in the works of Comte and La Boétie. To illustrate this methodology, I used this very article as a recursive performance. I show how RDA enabled me to identify implicit discriminative mechanisms within my discourse and transform them
into an alternative based on love, to produce an article more in line with my sociopolitical objectives. Overall, this article turns reflexivity into a critical methodology for social change and demonstrates how to integrate criticality methodologically into research and writing.
Open access: https://www.audreyalejandro.com/publications.html
Shifting to online teaching can be stressful, as it is full of unknowns. Identifying right on what the key challenges of online teaching are and addressing them as soon as possible is a good way towards making this experience as fulfilling as possible (and the least stressful and time-consuming down the line).
Whether you are a teacher teaching qualitative research methods or a student learning methodology, this blog post aims to help you answer the questions people learning how to code qualitative data always ask
How to effectively prepare post-graduate students to become autonomous and confident in developing their own research project? Combining a blog-post, a project outline and peer-feedback in the formative assignment equips students with key graduate attributes focusing on communication, structure, coherence, and self-assessment, as well as creates a feeling of community within the course.
Dataset and replication files for "Alternative metrics, traditional problems? Assessing gendered dynamics in the altmetrics of political science", published in European Political Science (2023). More detailed information in the README file. Please refer to the methodology section of the published article and the altmetric.py command file annotations for details.
The abstract of the published article is below:
Altmetrics are an emerging form of bibliometric measurement that capture the online dimension of scholarly exchange. Against the backdrop of both a higher education landscape increasingly focused on quantifying research productivity and impact, as well as literature emphasising the need to address gender bias in the discipline, we consider whether and how altmetrics (re)produce gendered dynamics in political science. Using a novel dataset on the Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) of political science research, we investigate two questions: Do AAS vary by gender? And how do AAS relate to gendered social media dynamics? We find that AAS reproduce gendered dynamics found in disciplinary publication and citation practices. For example, journal articles authored exclusively by female scholars score 27% lower on average than exclusively male-authored outputs. However, men are also more likely to write articles with an AAS of zero. These patterns are shaped by the presence of high-scoring male “superstars” whose research attracts much online attention. Complementing existing scholarship, we show that the AAS closely overlaps with virality dynamics on Twitter. We suggest that these gendered dynamics may be hidden behind the seemingly neutral, technical character of altmetrics, which is worrisome where they are used to evaluate scholarship.
Convener: Audrey Alejandro (Queen Mary University of London)
Venue: Queen Mary University of London (Arts Two Building, Room 217)
Deadline for applications: 9 February 2018
If discourses participate in structuring the world they refer to, can IR critical discourses focusing on domination and constraints contribute to social change and the improvement of the social conditions they study? The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars whose work addresses this contradiction. The concept of “utopia” has been chosen as an umbrella to encompass all the objects, theories and methodologies capable of performing a world different than the one historically studied in the discipline.
For further details, please see the full call for papers.
Potential contributors should send a 250-word abstract to a.alejandro@qmul.ac.uk by February 9th, 2018. A notification of acceptance will be sent by mid-February.
This workshop is sponsored by the BISA Working Group ‘IR as a Social Science’. Hence, travel costs for participants may be covered. Priority will be given to graduate students and early career researchers. Please specify whether you are applying for this funding when sending your abstract.