Watch our
Spotlight on our Theory/Area/History researchers:
Dr Katharine M Millar and Dr Martin Bayly
Production: Ben Garfield (Shine a Light Productions) and Sarah Helias (Department of International Relations)
Dr Katharine M Millar and Dr Martin Bayly reflect on the role of the Theory/Area/History Economy research cluster, which is the department’s home for work in international theory, area studies, and history within its pluralist research culture.
They discuss their own research into the relationship between violence and social relations and the social order; and into the frontier spaces of imperial rule. They identify the main beneficiaries of their research, and the collaborative work stemming out of such a rich research environment.
This video has been funded by ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund. It was recorded in June 2021 during the Covid pandemic when the UK was in lockdown.
Research cluster convenors:
Professor John Sidel and Dr Ida Birkvad
Research Cluster Workshop
The IRD workshop IR502 International Theory for IR students and faculty takes place eight times over Autumn Term and Winter Term. Information will be circulated by email and in the department newsletters and is also available on the IR MPhil/PhD Moodle page.
For all queries, please contact the Cluster Coordinator Cora Alder, or the cluster convenors above.
The department was present at the creation of international theory. Its scholars and research students have long played leading roles in inventing and developing the discipline’s paradigms and approaches. ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ IR scholars not only figure prominently in the history of the discipline, they also have been at the leading edge of writing the history of the discipline.
In recent decades, international theory has moved beyond its European roots, enhanced by the theories and histories of other peoples and places. Area studies specialists, historians, and scholars from other fields increasingly situate their work in international and global contexts, creating new, interdisciplinary meeting points between IR and other fields in the humanities and social sciences.
The Theory/Area/History cluster is the department’s home for work in international theory, area studies, and history. Its faculty and research students, collectively and individually, work on everything from Global, Postcolonial and Feminist IR to IR’s traditional paradigms. Their work is enriched by profound attention to historical and regional context, as well as to intellectual history and the politics of thought.