WIIR: The Curious Feminist Lens: A look into gender and geopolitics with Professor Cynthia Enloe

Join Women in International Relations for a discussion with Clark University Professor Cynthia Enloe. Feminist theorist and writer Cynthia Enloe is internationally renowned for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. In 2017, she was selected to be named on the Gender Justice Legacy Wall, installed in the International Crimes Court, The Hague. At Clark University, Professor Enloe served as director of the Women’s Studies Program and as chair of the Political Science Department, and received the Outstanding Teacher Award three times. She now is a research professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE), and is affiliated with both the Political Science Department and with Women’s and Gender Studies. Professor Enloe’s career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, guest professorships in Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Her books include Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2000), The Curious Feminist (2004) and Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, (2010), The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (co-authored with Joni Seager) (2011, revised 2014). Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered appeared in 2013. Enloe’s thoroughly updated and revised 2nd edition of Bananas, Beaches and Bases was published by University of California Press, 2014. Her updated edition of Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link was published in 2016, and her newest book is The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy, (Myriad, UK, and Univ. of California Press, US, 2017). Professor Enloe’s feminist teaching and research have explored the interplay of gendered politics in both the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s labor is made cheap in globalized factories (especially sneaker factories) and how women’s emotional and physical labor has been used to support many governments’ war-waging policies — and how diverse women have tried to resist these efforts. Racial, class, ethnic and national identity dynamics, as well as ideas about femininities and masculinities, are common threads throughout her studies.

Her work has drawn the attention National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, C-Span, the BBC and other media. In 2010, she was awarded the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award. The American Council of Learned Societies awarded Cynthia its Charles Haskins Award in 2016, while the Caucus for New Political Science awarded her the McCoy Award in 2018.