GENDER

INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Here is a brief about the class : This course introduces students to the academic discipline of International Relations (IR). We first consider what an academic discipline is and the specific characteristics of IR as a distinct scholarly Endeavour, separate from other disciplines such as politics, law or sociology. Then we provide an overview of the competing traditions and theories of IR and the way these have developed in the context of particular political problems and issues at particular historical moments. Understanding these developments and the historical, political and intellectual circumstances that have given rise to different problems, theories, debates and subfields gives students a good orientation in IR and helps them contextualize the ideas they encounter in other IR courses.
Students are asked to pick one of the
following concepts.

I chose the CONCEPT: GENDER .

Here are some info about the topic Gender: This week we explore feminist interventions in IR. The lecture explores how, despite the fact that many issues pertinent to IR are highly gendered in their nature and effects, the discipline has tended to be blind to the questions of gender. We examine what is meant by gender and the various concerns that feminist IR scholars have articulated, such as the gendered nature of power structures and practice in international politics, the effects of diverse constructions of masculinity and femininity and the gendered focus of the mainstream of academic international relations.

Questions to think about in preparation for the lecture:
Can the language of security ever be gender neutral?
What are the most important feminist challenges to IR?
Is IR a masculine discipline and what does this mean?

Required reading:
Shepherd, L.J. Sex or gender? Bodies in world politics and why gender matters, in Laura J.Shepherd (ed.) Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009). [An excellent overview. This compilation contains a number of contributions from leading feminist scholars on various issues].
Tickner, J. Ann. Gender in world politics in Baylis, J., Smith, S. & Owens, P. The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.