Teaching Queer International Relations Theory. A conversation on queer activism, politics, and hope in the international relations classroom

Teaching Queer International Relations Theory means getting creative, and learning outside of the International Relations classroom. Neither of the chapter's authors teach courses exclusively about Queer Theory, and instead integrate Queer Theory throughout their teaching. For Jamie, research and teaching with a queer lens is motivated by being a queer lesbian committed to a feminist emancipatory practice. For Caitlin, Queer Theory allows her, as a White, straight cis woman, to both challenge the various gendered, sexual, and racial hierarchies and scrutinize the (dis)comforts and privileges she herself embodies, in search of a feminist and queerer vision of global politics. Queer Theory resists definition, and so the authors deliberately do not define it in this chapter. Instead, they offer their lived experiences and visions of what teaching Queer Theory means to them, that is, an approach, politics, and activism that is plural and grounded in the lived experiences of queer folks.