Article contents
Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection, and Reconstitution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2020
Abstract
Canons of intellectual “greats” anchor the history and scope of academic disciplines. Within international relations (IR), such a canon emerged in the mid-twentieth century and is almost entirely male. Why are women thinkers absent from IR’s canon? We show that it is not due to a lack of international thought, or that this thought fell outside established IR theories. Rather it is due to the gendered and racialized selection and reception of work that is deemed to be canonical. In contrast, we show what can be gained by reclaiming women’s international thought through analyses of three intellectuals whose work was authoritative and influential in its own time or today. Our findings question several of the basic premises underpinning IR’s existing canon and suggest the need for a new research agenda on women international thinkers as part of a fundamental rethinking of the history and scope of the discipline.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association
Footnotes
Support for this work was provided by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project on Women and the History of International Thought (RPG-2017-319).
For comments on earlier versions of the article we are extremely grateful to the three anonymous reviewers, and Jean-Francois Drolet, Sarah C. Dunstan, Helen M. Kinsella, Paul Kirby, Vanessa Ogle, Melanie Richter-Monpetit, Katharina Rietzler, Joanna Wood, and David Williams. Earlier versions of the article were presented at the British International Studies Association Annual Convention, the Millennium Conference in 2019, McGill University, Queen Mary University of London, and the University of Kent.
References
- 28
- Cited by
Comments
No Comments have been published for this article.