Description
International Relations education needs a new lease on life. The rapidly shifting World Order has left many of the theoretical foundations of IR in question by students, policymakers, and large swaths of society. Educators are tasked with navigating an increasingly challenging political dynamic in their teaching methods. To accommodate polarizing political perspectives in the classroom, there is a need for greater ingenuity in undergraduate education, which is currently in peril. Under these conditions, my work calls for a new way of engagement in the IR field that can reach across political divides to create opportunities for imagination in the classroom. Building on works such as World War Z (Brooks, 2006) and Theories of International Politics and Zombies: Apocalypse Edition (Drezner, 2011), I combine zombie-based storytelling in IR teaching practices to reclaim apocalyptic-themed creativity in the classroom. Through a historical analysis of zombie-based literature and rebuffed calls for new teaching practices, I show how the living dead can meet the needs of the modern student. Ultimately, I provide the ends, ways, and means necessary for IR to inject undead imagination into an increasingly challenging educational environment.
