This event is co-organised by co-organised by the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) and CIDRAL. It is part of CIDRAL's 2016/17 programme 'Possible Worlds'.
In the spirit of the rallying cry 'the personal is political – and international', this 'in conversation' session provides an opportunity to share the journey of a leading scholar in International Politics, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor, V. Spike Peterson, as she reflects on her entry into, questioning of, and moving beyond Disciplinary International Politics (IP). Spurred by witnessing global inequalities during years of border crossings as a solo backpacker in Africa and Asia, Spike chose a doctoral program in IP, but soon found richer insights in critical social theory. Thus began three decades of boundary transgressing research examining the histories and complex intersections of gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity/race and nation, and extending IP by including the intimate.
Spike will review and reflect upon this journey, encouraging us to ponder up close (rather than the usual at-a-distance) some of what her research illuminates, including economics as a system of valorizations, affective dimensions of global householding, the political economy of informalized work in relation to structural inequalities and their corollary insecurities, and critical queering of marriage, citizenship and states/nations. It is a personal engagement by a 'seasoned' academic sharing her own journey and her current insights into how important the personal/intimate is for both understanding and challenging global inequalities.
This 'in conversation' session will be followed by a reception to which all audience members are warmly invited.
V. Spike Peterson is a Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and Public Policy, at the University of Arizona with courtesy appointments in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies , Institute for LGBT Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, and International Studies. Her main areas of research are International Relations Theory; Global Political Economy; Gender and Politics; Contemporary Social Theory (Critical, Poststructural, Postcolonial, Feminist, Queer Theory). Her most recent work is on informalizations of work in relation to structural inequalities and their corollary insecurities worldwide; global householding; gendering war and its economies; and queering marriage, citizenship and states/nations. Recent articles include the following:
• Family Matters: How Queering the Intimate Queers the International. 2014. International Studies Review, in Forum: ‘Queer International Relations,’ 16: 604-608;
• ‘Antagonizing’ the Marriage Debate. 2014. Hysteria #4: ‘Antagonism’ (Oct). Pp. 33-35.
• Sex Matters: A Queer History of Hierarchies. 2014. International Feminist Journal of Politics16, 3 (Sep): 389-409.
