Mentor Post #8

A couple of weeks ago Professor Esser forwarded Dr. Field an invitation to an event he thought I should go to; it was a faculty research roundtable focusing on an upcoming article by Dr. Ann Tickner, one of the experts in feminist international theory. I attended the talk, which was otherwise attended by professors and PhD students (I was a little intimidated when we all went around the room and introduced ourselves, but everyone was really excited that I was there). It was an incredible experience and I feel like I was exposed to an entire world of feminist IR theory that I didn’t even know existed, because it often is not taught in typical IR classes- which was one of the main points of the talk. A week or two later Dean Jackson visited class, and suggested I reach out to Dr. Tickner personally, which I did. I met with her for about 45 minutes on March 30, and it was one of the most fascinating discussions I’ve ever had. By the end of it I felt like I had met one of my personal heroes, because of the groundbreaking work Dr. Tickner has done for women and on women in IR. She’s also led a remarkable life and in many ways represents what I want to achieve with my life. We discussed my project, and she helped me talk through many of the difficulties I was having with gender in my argument that women’s inclusion increases durability. The issue I was struggling with was that women are not inherently better at negotiation than men, and neither are men better than women- that’s truly comparing apples to oranges, and that kind of argument completely essentializes women rather than recognizing their complexity as human beings. Dr. Tickner helped me articulate that really what I’m arguing is that women, because of their different life experiences as a result of typical gender roles, bring a different perspective and negotiating style to the table. We also discussed the article she had written for the research roundtable, which was titled “Hidden Figures” after the movie on the African American women who worked at NASA and received no credit for their important role in the U.S’s early space exploration. Dr. Tickner told me that after seeing the movie, she loved the title so much she decided to start doing a research project to fit the title- and because her field is women in IR, that was not a difficult thing to do. Ultimately, it was an incredibly inspiring meeting.