Feminist Experiences of 'Studying Up': Encounters with International Institutions. (January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Holmes, Georgina; Wright, Katharine A. M.; Basu, Soumita; Hurley, Matthew; Martin de Almagro, Maria; Guerrina, Roberta; Cheng, Christine
• Is Part Of: Millennium. Volume 47:Number 2(2019)
• Page Start: 210
• Page End: 230
• Publication Date: 2019-01
• Subjects: gender -- international institutions -- Feminist International Relations -- postcolonialism; género -- instituciones internacionales -- relaciones internacionales feministas; genre -- institutions internationales -- relations internationales féministes; International relations -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 327.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0305829818806429
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-8298

Abstract

This article makes the case for feminist IR to build knowledge of international institutions. It emerges from a roundtable titled 'Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions' which took place at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore in 2017. Here, we engage in self-reflexivity, drawing on our conversation to consider what it means for feminist scholars to 'study up'. We argue that feminist IR conceptions of narratives and the everyday make a valuable contribution to feminist institutionalist understandings of the formal and informal. We also draw attention to the value of postcolonial approaches and multi-site analyses of international institutions for creating a counter-narrative to hegemonic accounts emerging from both the institutions themselves, and scholars studying them without a critical feminist perspective. In so doing, we draw attention to the salience of considering not just what we study as feminist International Relations scholars but how we study it.