Episode 10 – Juliet Kaarbo

8 06 2020

Professor Juliet Kaarbo of the University of Edinburgh and Brent go way back to their days as colleagues at the University of Kansas in the mid-late 2000s. Julie shares with Brent her growing up in Kansas and Oklahoma, her graduate studies at the Ohio State University and developing her research program in Foreign Policy Analysis, getting the job at KU and the challenges of the tenure process especially being the first person in the department to have a baby. She discusses taking a visiting position in Geneva at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, the decision to come back to the US and KU, and her transition to Edinburgh where she is today. Julie had a couple of scares that she discusses, including fighting (and beating) cancer and a serious accident in Turkey while she was there on a fellowship that put her in the hospital for some time. She concludes by sharing her thoughts on how she approaches writing, her work in administrative roles over the years including as Grad Director at KU and her work with the KU Office of International Affairs, how she handles stress, her thoughts on the pandemic and how it will shape IR, and the experience of being named the 2018 Distinguished Scholar of the FPA section.