Looking for the Right Department

[mcd417]

Hello all,

I completed an MA in Government (International Law and Politics) from Georgetown in July 2008. 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, such as a school that is strong in Queer Theory. Because my interests have shifted significantly.

Also, if anyone wants to weigh in on the likelihood of getting into a decent program without any significant research on this topic, let me know.

Thanks so much!

[Zahar Berkut]

My gut says that any department with a strong focus on international norms/institutions should accommodate, either from a neoliberal or constructivist perspective-- off the top of my head I can't think of a huge number of faculty whose interests would directly overlap (I assume you're looking into political science programs). That said, Berkeley, Princeton, and Brown come to mind quickly as places that may be strong/interested in your research area, and Berkeley has the advantage of a top notch law school. You'll want to investigate individual faculty, though.