This event is offered both virtually and in-person. Our speaker Dr. Caitlin Biddolph, will be virtual, with the program being broadcast at our offices. The program will take place from 6-7pm, with a 30 minute discussion period following led by program moderator Maisy Blanton.
In countries across the world, LGBTQIA+ rights are backsliding. While significant progress has been made through activist and advocacy networks advancing queer rights and enshrining them in national and international laws and frameworks, there are still over sixty countries that criminalise homosexuality, and many more where transphobia is rampant. This includes countries where queer rights and activism have historically been vibrant – including in the US and the UK – where anti-queer and anti-trans policies have emboldened broader societal discrimination and violence against LGBTQIA+ communities.
These developments are not confined to specific countries but are part of a broader global politics of queerphobia, across authoritarian and liberal democratic societies. In such a context, what then does it mean to ‘queer’ International Relations? In this talk, Dr Caitlin Biddolph (University of Technology Sydney) outlines the necessity of viewing global politics through a queer lens. Queering International Relations centres LGBTQIA+ experiences, but it also challenges violences and assumptions of all kinds, including cisheterosexism, racism, colonialism, militarism, and the intersections between them.
Dr Biddolph shows how queer thinking applies to the contemporary queer rights backlash, questions of international and transitional justice, and the realm of AI and digital politics. In doing so, she outlines the need to not only recognize the ways the international system is deeply gendered and sexual, but also the necessity of finding ways to promote queer rights and dignity in this current volatile context.
About the Speaker
Dr Caitlin Biddolph is an award-winning researcher and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and the Course Coordinator for the UTS Master of International Relations program. Prior to this role, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender and Global Governance at the University of Sydney. Caitlin completed her PhD in International Relations at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, and was formerly a Research Associate with the Australian Human Rights Institute. Caitlin is an Honorary Associate with the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, and an Associate Fellow of AdvanceHE (AFHEA).
Caitlin's primary research focuses on queering governance, international law, and transitional justice. Her doctoral research explored discourses and logics of gender, sexuality, civilisation, and violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She's currently researching transitional justice through queer decolonial perspectives. More broadly, Caitlin is interested in queer, feminist, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches to global politics.
About the Moderator: Maisy Blanton is a rising senior and communications major at UMKC. She has been on staff at UMKC's independent newspaper, Roo News, since her Freshman year. She is excited to finish out her senior year as the paper's community engagement manager. As a race, ethnic, and gender studies minor, she is thankful for the research opportunities UMKC has provided. Her most recent project delves into the intersection of reproductive justice and queering pastoral care in the United States. After working on the project during the Spring semester with Dr. Jessica Gantt-Shafer, she is excited to see where it goes and what other research opportunities await her. She is ecstatic to combine her knowledge of queer studies with her newfound love of international relations in this program with Caitlin Biddolph. Having served as a spring and summer programs intern for the IRC, she is extremely grateful for all of the wonderful people she has connected with, and she can't wait to close out her time at the IRC with such a meaningful program!