International Studies Compendium Project

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Comment on this article   The four-word title, gender in the classroom, evokes a potentially expansive agenda for a relatively short essay dealing with the 40-year time period in which terms like women, then gender and feminism became more visible in teaching, research, and action in international studies. The early and growing connections between comparative politics (CP) and international relations (IR) form the intersectional foundation for this essay written in the twenty-first century context of North–South relations and the glaring global inequalities of a postcolonial world. The gendered study of IR has many meanings, once the intersections of CP and IR are clearer, and one of the aims in this essay is to suggest ways that these meanings might illuminate teaching strategies. To do this, it critiques and engages with relevant IR, CP, and feminist and gendered research, for research traditions and foundational literatures affect preparations for and approaches to classroom topics. I take Deborah Steinstra's call to “use an integrative and transformative approach to gender in our teaching” (cited in Carpenter 2007a :315) as inspiration for another major aim in this essay – to offer lots of practical ideas and suggestions. From my historical vantage points, I saw some transformation in political science as analysts in comparative and international studies challenged subfields ... log in or subscribe to read full text