Информация о курсе

Course Description

The course asks: what does it mean to take seriously the claim that gender and race are not variables within international relations but constitutive of it, and of the global political economy itself? The answer transforms not only how we analyse how we analyse world politics, but to interrogate what has historically been recognised as political within it. From a feminist political economy perspective, this requires analysing not only how power operates between states, but how global systems of production, social reproduction, and accumulation are organised through gendered and racialised hierarchies. It shifts attention to what counts as "the economy," whose labour sustains it, and how exploitation and inequality are normalised through both markets and states. In doing so, it interrogates whose work is valued or devalued, whose lives are rendered visible or invisible, and how global order depends on these structured inequalities.

Syllabus

The foundational concepts of International Relations (IR): sovereignty, anarchy, the balance of power, the national interest, present themselves as universal. They are not. From a feminist political economy perspective, these concepts emerge from and sustain a historically specific global order:one rooted in colonial extraction, capitalist expansion, and the gendered and racialised division of labour.

In mainstream IR, the sphere of high politics is presented as separated from the sphere of economic and social life. A feminist political economy analysis of IR rejects this divide. It insists that global politics cannot be understood without analysing how unpaid care work, migrant labour, informal economies, and global supply chains sustain state power and international stability. To study IR without interrogating these foundations is to study the world as it has been theorised by those whose dominance depended on obscuring these relations of exploitation. In this course, we refuse that inheritance while maintaining rigorous analytical engagement with global politics.

Drawing on critical feminist IR and feminist political economy, the course equips students with frameworks to analyse how global inequalities are produced and reproduced through intertwined systems of capitalism, patriarchy, and racial hierarchy. Gender and race are not supplementary variables to be added to existing models; they are organising principles of the global political economy itself.

In this course, we also examine how global economic and political systems reproduce inequality, and also how they might be transformed, bridging an all to common gap between critique and construction. Particular attention is given to feminist, queer and post/decolonial alternatives.

Students leave the course with the analytical tools to trace the hidden labour and power relations underpinning international order, and with the theoretical and practical resources to imagine and work toward more just and equitable global futures.

Evaluation and grading

Students will be evaluated on the basis of different exercises.

1. Participation and reading response (20%):

- Synchronous participation and involvement in class (if possible)

- Answering the weekly questions in class.

2. Class presentation/ Debate style (30%): 15 min max

Class presentations are a collective exercise, taking place over the first eleven (11) weeks. They either address (complement) the session’s topic Class presentations are a collaborative exercise, either complementing the session's topic or exploring a related theme through two assigned readings.

Presenters/Debaters should prepare the following:

- Page 2 -- Introduction: Presents both texts' topics and how they connect to the session.

- Analysis of each text: Includes a research question/ Main thesis and key arguments/

Author's background/approach/ Methodology and data / Critical appraisal (strengths/weaknesses)

- Conclusion: Briefly summarises key talking points

The debates cover eleven (11) of the sessions during the semester.

3. Final paper: 50% of the final grade

Paper proposal is 10% of the grade and the final paper is 40% of the grade.

A final term paper of 3500 words (excluding bibliography) on your chosen topic, based on the course’s main themes You can refer to the recommended readings in this syllabus to find inspiration and additional sources for this paper.