Receiving the ISA James N. Rosenau Postdoctoral Fellowship

In January of this year I received a call from the Executive Director of the International Studies Association, Mark Boyer, to inform me that I'd been selected to receive the ISA James N. Rosenau Post-Doctoral Fellowship for 2018-2019. It was very welcome news following an incredibly challenging fall 2017 because of things going on in my personal life, including losing my father in November. The award will make it possible for me to develop my dissertation manuscript into a book as well as continue my research by focusing on the LGBTQ NGO aspect of the conversation about Queering Women, Peace and Security. My department published a short piece about the fellowship and Peggy Karns gave me a copy of the last book James N. Rosenau published before he died, People Count! Networked Individuals in Global Politics which was very kind. 

I was pleased to have the opportunity to give a visiting lecture as a post-doctoral fellow in November at the University of Connecticut, where ISA is housed. While at UConn I spoke with students in the Sexualities, Activism, and Globalization course and we had the opportunity to think through what queer inclusion means together. The folks at ISA made such a wonderful flyer for the event too!

For this fellowship there is no residency requirement so it was my first time meeting most of the ISA staff. We all gathered for lunch and then I spent a bit of time exploring campus before preparing for my afternoon talk. After the talk I went out to dinner with Mark as well as Kristy Belton who I've been working with during my fellowship. Everyone is gearing up for the next ISA convention in Toronto in April 2019 so the office is covered in Canadian flags. Canadian flag on the wall, on the coffee mugs - everywhere! There is also a massive timeline on the whiteboard with notes for the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration next year.

During my visit to Storrs, Connecticut I stayed at the Daniel Rust House and can not recommend the place enough. They place is in the middle of the countryside and they also made me the most wonderful breakfast to get my day started. If you are ever looking for a place to stay near UConn, look no further! 

Daniel Rust House in Storrs

In addition to continuing to publish about lesbian, bisexual and transgender women's experiences in conflict-related environments I will also be writing an interview series for the Professional Resource Center at the International Studies Association website. About the series: "Broadening Engagements with International Affairs is a new interview series hosted by the ISA Professional Resource Center and written by ISA James N. Rosenau Post-Doctoral Fellow Jamie J. Hagen. The series highlights interviews with content developers of websites, podcasts, and newsletters finding new ways of engaging with scholars researching pressing issues in international affairs today."

I've published three of the interviews for the series so far including an interview with Elmira Bayrasli of Foreign Policy Interrupted, Kim Yi Dionne who is an editor at The Monkey Cage and Stephen McGlinchey who is Editor in Chief of E-International Relations (E-IR). I'm looking forward to the opportunity to continue to conduct interviews in early 2019.

The community I've found over the course of the past four years going to the convention have entirely shaped my understanding of the many ways that IR benefits from queer, feminist and indigenous engagements in ways that make IR scholarship political and aware of the everyday experiences of people rather than what can seem like outdated theories developed by and for white men. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue my academic research with the support of the ISA.