Queer International Relations (together with Cynthia Weber)

2019

2020

The politics surrounding what is generally described as ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ (SOGI) have received an astounding degree of public and international attention in recent years. Countries across the globe have implemented substantial equality provisions in order to prove that they are ‘modern’ or ‘Western’ enough, while others responded with pushback in the form of homophobic legislation and persecution. To complicate matters further, much of the homophobia in those states was institutionally embedded by the same colonizing powers that now lead the way in LGBT rights promotion. Sexual rights have become points of contention, eliciting domestic culture wars and international diplomatic rows. The status of sexuality politics in international relations (IR) has not only been elevated, but also impacted apparently SOGI-unrelated policies (such as foreign policy, health care, or labor markets) and thus created new avenues for looking at the construction of conventional IR...

Collections of reflections on Queer International Relations, with contributions by Cynthia Weber, Amy Lind, V. Spike Peterson, Laura Sjoberg, Lauren Wilcox, and Meghana Nayak

Article first published online: 3 SEP 2015 DOI: 10.1111/isqu.12212 This article outlines two theoretical and methodological approaches that take a queer intellectual curiosity about figurations of “homosexuality” and “the homosexual” as their core. These offer ways to conduct international relations research on “the homosexual” and on international relations figurations more broadly, e.g. from “the woman” to “the human rights holder.” The first approach provides a method for analyzing figurations of “the homosexual” and sexualized orders of international relations that are inscribed in IR as either normal or perverse. The second approach offers instructions on how to read plural figures and plural logics that signify as normal and/or perverse (and which might be described as queer). Together, they propose techniques, devices and research questions to investigate singular and plural IR figurations – including but not exclusively those of “the homosexual” – that map international phenomena as diverse as colonialism, human rights, and the formation of states and international communities in ways that exceed IR survey research techniques that, for example, incorporate “the homosexual” into IR research through a “sexuality variable.”

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets

The term queer theory came into being in academia as the name of a 1990 conference hosted by Teresa de Lauretis at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a follow-up special issue of the journal differences. In that sense, queer theory is newer to the social sciences and humanities than many of the ideas that are included in this bibliographic collection (e.g., realism or liberalism), both native to International Relations (IR) and outside of it. At the same time, queer theory is newer to IR than it is to the social sciences and humanities more broadly—becoming recognizable as an approach to IR very recently. Like many other critical approaches to IR, queer theory existed and was developed outside of the discipline in intricate ways before versions of it were imported into IR. While early proponents of queer theory, including de Lauretis, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Lauren Berlant, had different ideas of what was included in queer theory and what its objectives ...

Jindal Journal of International Affairs

The ‘Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ claims shape International Relations’ is a peculiar work which discusses the impact of LGBTQ politics on the study of International Relations (IR) through LGBTQ experiences to the IR system. This book contains an introduction, eight chapters and a conclusion edited by Manuela Lavinas Picq and Markus Thiel. The eight chapters are based on different themes and written by different authors which helps in collaborating vibrant and insightful ideas about inclusion of the LGBTQ community in mainstream politics. The focus of the book is on the subtitle- ‘How LGBTQ claims shape International Relations’, rather than on the title which talks about Sexualities in World Politics. The editors in the introductory chapter introduce the LGBTQ terminology under the startling acronym LGBTIQQ2SA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, 2-spirited, and allies) along with different elements of LGBTQ perspectives which ...

Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 2018

Queer IR’s momentum in the past four years has made it inconceivable for disciplinary IR to make it ‘appear as if there is no Queer International Theory.’ The ‘queer turn’ has given rise to vibrant research programs across IR subfields. Queer research is not only not a frivolous distraction from the ‘hard’ issues of IR, but queer analytics crack open for investigation fundamental dimensions of international politics that have hitherto been missed, misunderstood or trivialized by mainstream and critical approaches to IR. As queer research is making significant inroads into IR theorizing, a fault line has emerged in IR scholarship on sexuality and queerness. Reflecting the tensions between LGBT studies and queer theory in the academy more broadly, the IR literature on (homo)sexuality largely coalesces into two distinct approaches: LGBT and Queer approaches. The article will lay out the basic tenets of queer theory and discuss how it diverges from LGBT studies. The essay then turns to the books under review and focuses on the ways in which they take up the most prominent issue in contemporary debates in queer theory: the increasing inclusion of LGBT people into international human rights regimes and liberal states and markets. The article finishes with a brief reflection on citation practices, queer methodologies and the ethics of queer research.

Information about my new book published in the Oxford Studies on Gender and International Relations Series. Includes description, table of contents, reviews and link to the book on the Oxford University Press website.