Dr Maria Rost Rublee2, Dr Maria Tanyag3, Dr. Federica Caso4, Dr. Caitlin Biddolph5, Dr. Monika Barthwal-Datta6, Dr Umut Ozguc, Dr Cai Wilkinson7
1Macquarie University, Australia, 2The University of Melbourne, Australia, 3Australian National University (ANU), Australia, 4La Trobe University, Australia, 5University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, 6University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, 7Deakin University, Australia
Biography:
Umut Ozguc is the co-founder of Australian Critical Border Studies Network and co-chair of the Women Caucus APSA.
Maria Rost Rublee is President of Women in International Security-Australia and was named to the Top 50 Leadership List, U.S. National Security & Foreign Affairs by the Centre for Strategic & International Studies, Washington DC.
Maria Tanyag is a DECRA Fellow. She is the author of The Global Politics of Sexual and Reproductive Health (OUP, 2024).
Federica Caso examines how the inclusion of gender and racial diversity in the military shapes defence and society. She is awarded the Research Excellence Award for ECR at La Trobe. She is author of Settler Military Politics (EUP). Federica is an executive board member of Women in International Security-Australia and co-chair of the Women Caucus APSA.
Caitlin Biddolph is interested in queer, feminist, and decolonial approaches to global politics. She won the International Feminist Journal of Politics Enloe Award. Queering Governance and International Law (OUP) is out in 2025.
Monika Barthwal-Datta’s research areas include critical security studies, Indian foreign policy, and decolonial feminist approaches. She is the author of Food Security in Asia (Routledge, 2014) and Understanding Security Practices in South Asia (Routledge, 2012).
Cai Wilkinson is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Deakin University. Cai's research focuses on societal security in the post-Soviet space, with a particular focus on LGBTQ human rights and "traditional values" in Kyrgyzstan and Russia, as well as on interrogating the role of genders and sexualities in international politics. Cai is currently working on projects about the politics of LGBT rights and "traditional values", and queer knowledges.
Abstract:
Critical voices remain in the margins of Australian IR. By bringing critical voices together this roundtable seeks to contest the established boundaries of the discipline through an intersectional gendered lens. We will survey the cartography of Australian IR to discuss how some voices are made invisible in our disciplinary practices. We expose that the traditional ontological and epistemological foundations of IR is a political practice. These foundations discipline our bodies and our words. Grounded in the belief that ‘the personal is political’, we will discuss how the personal is connected to collective concerns and struggles. With such dialogues, we will seek to offer new directions towards developing a more inclusive discipline reflecting the footprints of diverse voices, knowledge systems and experiences.