Can academia be activism in International Politics?

Approaches in International Politics that reflect the positionality of researchers as actively producing the world we live in, have significantly expanded our understanding of global challenges. Multiple voices in the discipline argue that our research forms an active intervention in social life, ranging from autobiographical writing to feminist strands arguing that the personal is political. Standpoint epistemology presents itself without reservation as ‘politically engaged research on behalf of oppressed groups’ (Harding 2004: 5) and calls for conscious politicization of knowledge (Pels 2004: 273). This academic perspective reflects a clear political goal postulating that partial and distorted male-dominated society must be informed and corrected by feminist theorizing and political engagement (Pels 2004: 282). In the field of nuclear disarmament, scientific knowledge about atomic weapons’ catastrophic consequences has informed nuclear disarmament campaigns since the late 1940s and recently underpinned the campaign for a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. Understood in this way, studying global challenges in academia holds the potential to conflate with a notion of activism in which projects and methodologies produce – or are in themselves - tools to fight for political change.

 

Academia is often charged with the critique of producing knowledge in an “ivory tower” but are the voices of those involved in the pursuit of social change different from those who seek to understand global challenges? Many of us perceive our research projects as a form of activism to find new ways of addressing global challenges. This workshop explores the nexus between academic knowledge and political practices. We will analyse how postgraduate researchers and early career scholars have used or intend to use their academic research to influence political practices with regard to global challenges. We invite papers (3000-5000 words) that reflect (but are not limited to), questions such as:

 

* How can we use our academic research to help resolve global challenges such as nuclear disarmament or climate change and challenge the negative influences of broader political structures such as neoliberalism or oppressive regimes?

* Can we use our research projects/outputs to influence political actions? Or do we have to resort to other forms of activism to bring change? What structures of exchange between academia and policy practitioners exist and how can we utilise them?

* How do you combine the pursuit of social change (action) with the scholarly understanding (research) of global issues?

* How does the academy limit your research on specific ways of achieving political change? In what way do social structures of the academy more broadly and IP as a discipline in particular condition the way in which action can be undertaken through research?

For any questions please contact Jana Wattenberg (jaw80@aber.ac.uk)

Abstracts (200-300 words) can be sent to the same address by the 15th of May.

 

References

Harding, Sandra. 2004. "Introduction: Standpoint Theory as a Site of Political, Philosophic, and Scientific Debate." In The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader. Intellectual and Political Controversies, edited by Sandra Harding, 1-15. New York and London: Routledge.

Pels, Dick. 2004. "Strange Standpoints, or How to Define the Situation for Situated Knowledge." In The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader. Intellectual and Political Controversies, edited by Sandra Harding, 273-289. New York and London: Routledge.