On the Continuum of (Sexualized) Violence

During our last class we began talking about the continuum of (sexualized) violence, as identified by feminist scholars (such as Ann Jones, Liz Kelly, Jacqui True), as well as about linkages between masculinity and violence (drawing on the work of R.W. Connell in particular)... I would love to hear any follow-up reflections or thoughts - please post as a comment to this entry.

Next week we'll continue talking about the issues - looking at a variety of case studies from many parts of the world, some drawn from the work of Ann Jones, who is coming to visit us to talk about her work in Winter In Kabul: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (Picador: 2009) and War is Not Over When It’s Over: Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War (Metropolitan Books: 2009).

As before, students will be posting summaries of some of the case studies on this blog.

Feminist Research: Methodology & Ethics

After an initial introduction to Feminist  International Relations/ Feminist Security Studies at our first seminar meeting, today we focused on what distinguishes feminist research in International Politics (and beyond), paying particular attention to feminist research ethics. Students read materials from the  following books:

• Ackerly, B. & True. J. (2010)  Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Ackerly, B., Stern, M. & True. J. (2006) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Cambridge University Press.
• Wibben, A.T.R. (2011) Feminist Security Studies: A Narrative Approach. London: Routledge

... and, in groups, discussed different feminist research reports featured in Ackerly, Stern & True (2006). Summaries of the latter will be posted by the students themselves.