The best of gender and nuclear research – BISA 2020 prize recipients in discussion

Monday 29 Jun 2020, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/London

Chair: Mark Webber (BISA Chair, University of Birmingham)

Participants: 

• Becky Alexis-Martin (Manchester Metropolitan University, recipient of the L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize)
• Aiko Holvikivi (London School of Economics, recipient of the Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize)
• Rauna Koukkanen (University of Lapland, recipient of the Susan Strange Best Book Prize)

Each year BISA awards a number of prizes that recognise excellence in research and teaching. Three of this year’s recipients are brought together in this webinar to talk about their work. 

Becky Alexis-Martin will discuss her book Disarming Doomsday: the Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons since Hiroshima (Pluto Press, 2019). The judging panel described this as ‘a pioneering account [that pushes] the boundaries of postcolonial and feminist perspectives onto exploring both the effects of nuclear weapons technologies and tests on people on the margins.’

Rauna Koukkanen’s book Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance, and Gender (Oxford University Press, 2019) was described by the judging panel as ‘theoretically and empirically rich’ and offering ‘a close examination of the structural relations of domination that constitute the inequalities and injustices present within Indigenous discourses on self-government and self-determination.’ Rauna Kuokkanen ‘draws attention to the “gender regimes” at work within Indigenous institutions, discourse and experience. Weaving together feminist and Indigenous political and legal discourses on gender, self-determination, and settler colonialism.’

Our third prize winner, Aiko Holvikivi, has written a superb thesis that looks at gender training for uniformed peacekeepers utilising feminist, postcolonial, (and) queer epistemic approaches. Fixing Gender: the Paradoxical Politics of Peacekeeper Training (completed at the London School of Economics in 2019) was described by the judges as ‘an exceptional piece of work’ that ‘has potential ramifications across a range of literatures and fields.’

The work discussed in this webinar breaks new ground and is indicative of some of the very best scholarship being undertaken in IR.

1 The best of contemporary research – BISA 2020 prize recipients in discussion