Sexual Minorities and IR

[mcd417]

Hello all,

As background, I am hoping to apply to PhD programs this Fall. I applied after completing my BA in International Relations and French from BU, and was rejected. Chicago deferred me to the CIR MA program, NYU deferred me to MA in Politics. I have since completed an MA in Government (International Law and Politics) from Georgetown. At Georgetown, my research generally focused on security-related issues, but towards the end I became more interested in the vacuous nature of international human rights law and the failure of the international human rights regime. My foremost interest now is an emerging norm to protect sexual minorities (e.g. GLBTQ persons) in international law, and whether this is premature and therefore ultimately damaging or whether it could be the crystallization of a norm, etc.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on departments that might be interested in this question. So far, I have had trouble locating anyone interested in the nexus of the rights of sexual minorities and IR / public international law. Even general ideas would be very helpful. Because my interests have shifted significantly, I no longer feel that my list from 2006 is relevant.

Thanks so much!

[Gradstudent1985]

You may want to consider a PhD in Public International Law or Gender Studies or Legal Anthropology instead of an IR or Poli Sci PhD program, where there may be some people interested in that area.

[LordNorth]

I've never read any IR literature that paid attention to sexual minorities, now that you mention it. That's very interesting, and I think there could be a really exciting opening there.

My impression is that IR in the US has been slow to recognise things like gender, sexuality, race, class etc. as valid subjects within IR; departments there are heavily state-centric and would tend to see this kind of thing as outside of their purview. Critical IR theory, which is the perspective that is probably most devoted to broadening the scope of analysis within IR, doe not seem (to me) to have had that much of an impact in the US. Have you tried looking at schools in the UK and elsewhere in Europe? These PhDs will be worth much less on the US job market and will only really be useful for a job in the UK, but if it's a chance to pursue this kind of research that you're after - then 3-4 years studying over here might just do the job. Just a thought.

Don't give up though - this sounds like a really great idea.

[neverposting]

I'm breaking my rule about never posting (see user name) to reply to this thread.

First, do not be discouraged. There are plenty of people who work in international human rights (even if there work isn't directly related to LGBT research).

The most obvious fit seems to be Spike Peterson @ UofA. Have you looked at her work?

What about University of Minnesota? They don't have people that do LGBT stuff per se, but I think Sikkink's work would be applicable.

The New School in NYC also seems to be pretty progressive in terms of research agendas.

The schools you applied to first time around were very strong, but I'm worried that you're more concerned with the name/pedigree than the training you'll receive. It''s totally fine to feel constrained to the top 15 schools, but we need to know that if we're going to give you useful advice.

Oh, and I'd recommend asking the people at www.poliscijobrumors.com/. They're mean, but they're honest and they have a good grasp on what's being taught at the top programs.

[mcd417]

Thanks so much for the advice. I do not feel beholden to the "top 15" by any means - I am much more concerend with finding the right fit, a supportive department and an advisor who can help lead me through what seems to be somewhat unchartered territory. I am very familiar with Sikkink's work and figure a constructivist discourse would play a large part in my work. I'm also aware of Finnemore at GW and Ruggie at Harvard for that matter...