Academia

Strategies of Unusual Size

by Dan Nexon | May 6, 2022 | Academia, Security

I wrapped the 2022 edition of my undergraduate “Grand Strategy” seminar this past Tuesday. This must have the eight or ninth iteration of the class. I like teaching it. I really do. But I have significant reservations about “grand strategy” as a classroom subject. I’m not at all convinced that grand strategy is a thing. Yes, plenty of people advocate for a preferred “grand strategies.” Not a few of them would love to become the ‘next George F. Kennan,’ which leads to some truly eyeroll-worthy...

Best Practices in Quantitative Conflict Studies

by Sooyeon Kang & Trey Billing | Apr 21, 2022 | Academia, Security, Theory & Methods

When it comes to quantitative data in conflict studies, standards for collection, reliability, ethics, and usage remain behind the curve. We discuss five things that scholars can do to address these gaps.

Episode 23: Being Academic and Pandemic Time

by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | Apr 18, 2022 | Academia, Featured, Whiskey & IR Theory

In this “Whiskey Optional” episode, PTJ facilitates a conversation among four colleagues from dif…

Partnered Engagement: A New Form of Ethical Policy Engagement

by Oliver Kaplan | Apr 18, 2022 | Academia, Bridging the Gap, Human Rights, Security, States & Regions

What happens when a research subject becomes a research and briefing partner? In 2017, I was contacted by the peacebuilding NGO Peace Direct to contribute to a policy report on...

More Academia Posts

Why Land Acknowledgements?

by Stuart J. Kaufman | Apr 9, 2022 | Academia, Race

The ISA statement lacks not only comparative history but also local historical depth. It also distorts moral responsibility.

How I Found a Job Outside of Academia

by Lauren Haumesser | Apr 8, 2022 | Academia, Bridging the Gap

I hold a PhD in history from the University of Virginia. Like many graduate students, I began my doctoral program hoping to become a professor. When I decided to pursue a different career, my university didn’t know how to advise me. Here’s what I learned about finding a non-academic job.

Which will matter more, MESA’s BDS vote or the Negev Summit?

by Peter Henne | Mar 28, 2022 | Academia

This has been either a bad week for Israel, or a great week for Israel, depending on whom you ask or what your Twitter feed looks like. In the end, this may matter more for the relevance and impact of Middle East studies than anything else.

6+1 Questions about Subversive Pedagogies

by Kate Schick & Claire Timperley | Mar 27, 2022 | 6+1 Questions, Academia

What is the name of the edited volume and what are its coordinates? Kate Schick and Claire Timperley (eds.). 2022. Subversive Pedagogies: Radical Possibility in the Academy. London: Routledge. What’s the argument? The volume calls on international-relations instructors to make use of “subversive pedagogies” — ones that embrace a more holistic understanding of teaching. It invites academics to interrogate what we teach, how we teach, where we teach, and whom we teach. Our contributors focus on three major themes: how place and space...

A Tale of Two Interviews: IR Theory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

by Jarrod Hayes & Adam B. Lerner | Mar 22, 2022 | Academia, Security, Theory & Methods

Two recent interviews in the New Yorker have received substantial attention in recent weeks. Unfortunately, taken together, they make the IR discipline look terrible. How can IR theorists demonstrate their discipline’s relevance in the face of rapidly changing historical events?

Leveling Cybersecurity Challenges with Graduate U.S. Public Policy Programs

by Chandler A. Myers | Mar 21, 2022 | Academia, Security

In December of 2020, the U.S. government announced that hackers – most likely from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU – had compromised over two hundred companies and federal agencies. What sets the SolarWinds attack apart from previous incidents is its sheer scale. The company has over 300,000 customers worldwide, according to filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission… Targeted institutions include the U.S. departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, Energy, and the Treasury; all five branches of the U.S. military; the National Nuclear Security...

Interpretivism and Hiring: The Problems of COVID-19 and Its Implications for Academic Research

by Aniruddha Saha | Mar 10, 2022 | Academia

The COVID-19 virus scrambled the plans of social scientists whose research depends on field work, including many who use and reflexive methods. It became almost impossible to do research that depends on face-to-face interviews, personal interactions, and participant observations. It's difficult to imagine how someone like Elisabeth Jean Wood, who spent months in El Salvador (in a conflict zone, no less), could do inspiring field research during the height of pandemic. Even now, any research that requires travel has become more precarious; you never know when health guidelines might cancel...

What is in a Name? Additional Sources of Bias in Citation Counts

by Idean Salehyan | Mar 8, 2022 | Academia, Featured, Publications

Articles by authors with foreign-sounding names are cited far less than those written by people with “typically-American” names.

The Duck of Minerva