Everything you always wanted to know about sex (in IR) but were afraid to ask: the ‘queer turn’ in international relations

Queer International Relations’ momentum in the past four years has made it inconceivable for disciplinary IR to make it ‘appear as if there is no Queer International Theory’. The ‘queer turn’ has given rise to vibrant research programmes across IR subfields. Queer research is not only not a frivolous distraction from the ‘hard’ issues of IR, but queer analytics crack open for investigation fundamental dimensions of international politics that have hitherto been missed, misunderstood or trivialised by mainstream and critical approaches to IR. As queer research is making significant inroads into IR theorising, a fault line has emerged in IR scholarship on sexuality and queerness. Reflecting the tensions between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies and Queer Theory in the academy more broadly, the IR literature on (homo)sexuality largely coalesces into two distinct approaches: LGBT and Queer approaches. The article will lay out the basic tenets of Queer Theory and discuss how it diverges from LGBT Studies. The article then turns to the books under review and focuses on the ways in which they take up the most prominent issue in contemporary debates in Queer Theory: the increasing inclusion of LGBT people into international human rights regimes and liberal states and markets. The article finishes with a brief reflection on citation practices, queer methodologies and the ethics of queer research

Factors controlling the phenology and limits of hibernation in a sciurid

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015Animals that live in seasonal environments have a variety of adaptations to survive periods of low to no food availability. One such adaptation is hibernation, which is characterized by profound decreases in activity, metabolic rate, and in most cases, body temperature. Among animals that hibernate, only two species are known to maintain low tissue temperature while defending significant temperature gradients, and the best studied of these is the Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii). In the first chapter, we determine the lower ambient temperature limit of hibernation for an arctic ground squirrel (-26°C), and that a maximum torpid metabolic rate exists (0.37 mL O₂/g*h). This maximum torpid metabolic rate allows animals to defend a ~26°C temperature gradient between their core and their environment. In this chapter we also demonstrate that another, temperate, hibernating species, the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis), is capable of continuing hibernation at sub-freezing temperatures and can defend a temperature gradient of at least 9°C. Due to the extreme environment that Arctic ground squirrels inhabit, they have a very short growing season (~3-7 months) during which they must reproduce, grow, and accumulate energy stores prior to hibernation onset. In the second chapter we investigate the roles androgens play in hibernation phenology and male aggressive behavior. We use plasma samples collected from free-living animals and radioimmunoassays to determine circulating androgen levels. We then match the peaks in androgens to the timing of the two periods of male-male aggression (testosterone in the spring and dehydroepiandrosterone in the late summer/fall). We also present evidence to support testosterone as the main factor determining the timing of spring euthermy and emergence among reproductively mature males. In the third chapter we utilize captive animals to determine the importance of a cache to male reproductive development. Using three separate experiments, we show that while the accumulation of a cache in the late summer/fall may increase the likelihood of a male undergoing reproductive development, it alone may not be enough to ensure reproductive development. Additionally, we demonstrate that simply having access to ad libitum food in the spring is not enough to ensure reproductive development, nor is a restricted spring ration enough to prevent it

Beyond the Erotics of Orientalism: Homeland Security, Liberal War and the Pacification of the Global Frontier

Beyond the Erotics of Orientalism: Homeland Security, Liberal War and the Pacification of the Global Frontier traces the post-9/11 ascendancy of a complex and seemingly contradictory U.S. national security imaginary and concomitant practices of war and violence. On the one hand, the U.S. security state supported at times quite radical transgressions from the gendered racial-sexual grammars of the usual “War Story” (Cooke, 1996), such as the active involvement of women in the torture of enemy prisoners, the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy and more recently its support for overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. The U.S. social formation also took a seemingly great leap forward towards “post-racial triumph” (Ho Sang & LaBennett, 2012, p. 5) with the most diverse Presidential cabinet in U.S. history under Bush Jr. culminating in 2008 in the election of Barack Obama, the first American President racialized as Black. On the other hand, the U.S. security state aggressively pursued the racialized expansion and intensification of the (extrajudicial) use of military and carceral force in time and space, including selective deportations, indefinite detentions, the creation of an official torture policy and targeted killings of so-called enemy combatants outside of official warzones, including of US citizens. Beyond the Erotics of Orientalism explores these reconfigurations of law and belonging within broader shifts in contemporary liberal governance, in particular the promise that the 19th century colour line (DuBois, 1903) has been transcended and no longer per se marks populations as in/violable. I show how in this era of post-racial/sexual/gender triumph, the liberal project of security governs not only through military and carceral force, but also affectively through self-rule and the promotion of social difference. The dissertation locates the U.S. War on Terror's ambiguous promise of liberal freedom, equal inclusion and self-rule in the desires and disavowals of a White settler society in “the afterlife of slavery” (Hartman, 2007, p. 6). Building on the work of Native feminist and Afro-Pessimist theorists, this study suggests that we can only meaningfully interrogate the operations of power and violence in contemporary U.S. security making - including against Orientalized subjects - by accounting for the foundational role of anti-Black racism and the settler colonial character of the U.S. social formation. These interlocking racial-sexual logics mobilize knowledges of war and violence that facilitate not only the targeting of Muslim/ified people and spaces, but in turn also help secure the gendered racial-sexual order and property regime of the settler colonial homeland in this age of “post-everything” (Crenshaw, 2014) triumph

Queer international relations

Queer International Relations (IR) is not a new field. For more than 20 years, Queer IR scholarship has focused on how normativities and/or non-normativities associated with categories of sex, gender, and sexuality sustain and contest international formations of power in relation to institutions like heteronormativity, homonormativity, and cisnormativity as well as through queer logics of statecraft. Recently, Queer IR has gained unprecedented traction in IR, as IR scholars have come to recognize how Queer IR theory, methods, and research further IR’s core agenda of analyzing and informing the policies and politics around state and nation formation, war and peace, and international political economy. Specific Queer IR research contributions include work on sovereignty, intervention, security and securitization, torture, terrorism and counter-insurgency, militaries and militarism, human rights and LGBT activism, immigration, regional and international integration, global health, transphobia, homophobia, development and International Financial Institutions, financial crises, homocolonialism, settler colonialism and anti-Blackness, homocapitalism, political/cultural formations, norms diffusion, political protest, and time and temporalitie

Is securitization theory racist? Civilizationism, methodological whiteness, and antiblack thought in the Copenhagen School

This article provides the first excavation of the foundational role of racist thought in securitization theory. We demonstrate that Copenhagen School securitization theory is structured not only by Eurocentrism but also by civilizationism, methodological whiteness, and antiblack racism. Classic securitization theory advances a conceptualization of ‘normal politics’ as reasoned, civilized dialogue, and securitization as a potential regression into a racially coded uncivilized ‘state of nature’. It justifies this through a civilizationist history of the world that privileges Europe as the apex of civilized ‘desecuritization’, sanitizing its violent (settler-) colonial projects and the racial violence of normal liberal politics. It then constructs a methodologically and normatively white framework that uses speech act theory to locate ‘progress’ towards normal politics and desecuritization in Europe, making becoming like Europe a moral imperative. Using ostensibly neutral terms, securitization theory prioritizes order over justice, positioning the securitization theorist as the defender of (white) ‘civilized politics’ against (racialized) ‘primal anarchy’. Antiblackness is a crucial building-block in this conceptual edifice: securitization theory finds ‘primal anarchy’ especially in ‘Africa’, casting it as an irrationally oversecuritized foil to ‘civilized politics’. We conclude by discussing whether the theory, or even just the concept of securitization, can be recuperated from these racist foundations

Knowledge Management without Management -- Shadow IT in Knowledge-intensive Manufacturing Practices

The voluntary use of private device by employees without formal approval of the IT department, commonly termed Shadow IT, is an increasingly widespread phenomenon. In this paper, we study the role of private smartphones (and related applications like WhatsApp) in knowledge-intensive practices in the manufacturing domain. With an in-depth case study based on data gained from observations and interviews, we are able to empirically illustrate why workers use their private smartphones (contrary to company guidelines) and how they find significant gains of productivity by using the ‘forbidden’ applications. Our study contributes to knowledge management research by showing how private IT use can change existing knowledge management practices. At the same time, we are able to give rich insights into the rise of Shadow IT in a manufacturing context which takes place in a self-organised way without knowledge of the management. This enables us to take a step towards a knowledge management strategy perspective on Shadow IT

Hearing Impairment in Professional Musicians and Industrial Workers — Profession-Specific Auditory Stimuli Used to Evoke Event-Related Brain Potentials and to Show Different Auditory Perception and Processing

Hearing impaired professional musicians or industrial workers often report that they were able to identify mistuned chords in a music piece or even slight changes in the noise of their machines (usually > 100 dB SPL) though they were handicapped in listening tasks in daily routine

Dystonia and Paroxysmal Dyskinesias: Under-Recognized Movement Disorders in Domestic Animals? A Comparison with Human Dystonia/Paroxysmal Dyskinesias

Dystonia is defined as a neurological syndrome characterized by involuntary sustained or intermittent muscle contractions causing twisting, often repetitive movements, and postures. Paroxysmal dyskinesias are episodic movement disorders encompassing dystonia, chorea, athetosis, and ballism in conscious individuals. Several decades of research have enhanced the understanding of the etiology of human dystonia and dyskinesias that are associated with dystonia, but the pathophysiology remains largely unknown. The spontaneous occurrence of hereditary dystonia and paroxysmal dyskinesia is well documented in rodents used as animal models in basic dystonia research. Several hyperkinetic movement disorders, described in dogs, horses and cattle, show similarities to these human movement disorders. Although dystonia is regarded as the third most common movement disorder in humans, it is often misdiagnosed because of the heterogeneity of etiology and clinical presentation. Since these conditions are poorly known in veterinary practice, their prevalence may be underestimated in veterinary medicine. In order to attract attention to these movement disorders, i.e., dystonia and paroxysmal dyskinesias associated with dystonia, and to enhance interest in translational research, this review gives a brief overview of the current literature regarding dystonia/paroxysmal dyskinesia in humans and summarizes similar hereditary movement disorders reported in domestic animals

Beispielhafte Anwendung des Verfahrens BASINFORM am Wasserkörper Emsbach (Hessen) zur Aufstellung von Maßnahmenprogrammen nach Wasserrahmenrichtlinie

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