Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper is explicitly concerned with broad questions of international relations theory, and advances the argument that international relations theory is an identity practice. I develop this argument with reference to the production of Muslim identities in colonial Bengal. Notwithstanding the potential of this empirical case to shed light on some of the most enduring problems facing South Asia - not the least of which is communal conflict between Hindus and Muslims - international relations theory has positioned this case as a marginal site. However, I argue that this case can tell us a great deal about the world which we have made. It offers a position from which to consider ways in which identities are discursively produced, but it does so from a different ('unauthorised') place, a particular ('trivial'), local ('unimportant') place, from which it is possible to explore how, in Cynthia Enloe's words, the 'artifices of international politics are constructed.' I argue that it is only by disciplinary IR's terms that the production of identities in a colonial context has no relevance; as a marginalised group in a colonised political space, the ways in which the Bengal Muslims understood themselves cannot be separated from the ability of the powerful to constitute 'Others,' as Rob Walker has put it, as 'subjects subject to subjection.'

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Vitality is an intergroup concept that addresses how language and social groups make comparisons between each other. While vitality estimates can be measured objectively, they can also be measured subjectively. In other words, subjective vitality investigates the perceptions of how groups feel about their own group, and outgroups� status, demography, and institutional support. The Subjective Vitality Questionnaire was developed by vitality theorists to measure subjective assessments of vitality. Although the measure has been utilized for over twenty-five years, little research has examined its validity. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to assess the validity of the SVQ. Data collected from three different ethnic groups who provided subjective vitality estimates using the SVQ are presented and analyzed. Suggestions for future use of the SVQ are offered.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper addresses how the subject of security has been conceptualized in feminist security studies. Traditionally, the discipline of IR has been neatly pictured as a field of study in which the “units” of the international system, preferably the state

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this essay, I offer a more critical reading of the �moral perspective� based on an interpretation of Hegel�s views on morality and the modern subject. Although Hegel is notorious for his enthusiasm in the modern state, which is a strong system through and through, I suggest his view on morality alone allows for a non-systematic understanding of the �moral perspective.� The �moral perspective� is in this reading a moral settlement that pays respect for three kinds of subjective activity, freedom of insight, freedom of choice of pursuits, and ethical will. The need of such moral settlement is only evoked by actual encounters of particular wills when people actualize their internal ends in the external world.
One contemporary theory of transnational justice consistent with this critical reading of the �moral perspective� is Iris M. Young�s critical theory of communicative democracy. My reading of moral settlement agrees with her that our transnational causal connections engender moral obligations beyond national boundaries. But Young�s proposal of transnational institutions of justice also reveals the weakness of the �moral perspective� in transnational spheres. She, like most theories of transnational justice who see justice as the first virtue of political institutions, overlooks practicing justice is also one among the sources of our deepest conflicts. In addition to Bernard Yack�s and Judith Shklar�s accounts of our stubborn dispositions associated with justice or injustice, I use Hegel�s insight of the modern subject�s various pathologies while experiencing deep disagreements on justice to elaborate modern subjects� inherent difficulty in practicing transnational justice. If Hegel�s views on morality and the modern subject are correct, by their understandings of their causal relations and moral responsibilities alone, modern subjects are incapable of achieving consensus on transnational justice through ordinary democratic processes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Women�s identities as mothers and their practices of mothering are constructed through subjection, through their subordination as women as well as their often-subordinated positions within race and class relations. However, women often gain affirmation and strength through their identities as mothers. The same gender, race, and class relations that create mothers and motherhood through subordination also create the basis for mothers� agency. In the process of creating mothers, power relations also create women�s ability to act as mothers. Thus, the power that both subordinates and constructs mothers is transformed into mothers� power. When women�s actions and freedom are severely limited, as they are for women who are battered, the parts of their lives where they do have power become even more important to them. Based on in depth interviews with 17 mothers who have been battered I provide an analysis of the role of the meaning and practice of mothering in shaping the actions of women who are battered.