#wdym i need to turn concepts like 'democracy' and 'development' into measurable variables....stop

[rollercoasterwords]

I was just scrolling through your blog (because of your good fandom opinions), and I noticed that you majored in international studies! this is very random, but I wonder if you could talk more about what it is? (I never see other people who have studied it and would like a better explanation) (also no pressure!) (for me it's like... I study societies? it's interdisciplinary humanities??? idk. and history fits in very heavily)

sure!! so technically international studies/international relations is usually considered a subset of political science, so it's a social science whereas history is considered part of the humanities (or at least, that's the categorizations they fell into at my university). and international studies is essentially just the study of nation-states and international actors and the theories behind how they interact in the world. generally, in an i.s. 101 course you'll be taught the Big Three Theories, which are:

- realism (power is a zero-sum game, and all states are constantly competing for power and working to assure their own best interests)

- liberalism (power doesn't have to be a zero-sum game; states can cooperate and work to ensure their mutual interests)

- constructivism (rather than an outright focus on material interests and power, what drives states is their social and historical belief systems)

here's a link to a slightly more in-depth overview if ur interested

however, a lot of the i.s. field is very rooted in a western-centric and neocolonial worldview, where we get things like academics discussing "development" and measuring it based on the historical trajectory of colonizer states as though they're the model that other states should follow, which is...literally not possible unless u colonize people lol. like ummmm sure the u.k. and france and u.s. are more "developed" if ur rubric of measurement is shit like gdp....wonder how they amassed all that wealth....

anyway, despite its flaws, the field has had a turn more towards critcal theory in recent decades that i've found very promising and exciting, with more scholars developing marxist and feminist and postcolonial i.s. theories that challenge some of these problematic foundations and dominant modes of thinking in the field. and overall, it's an incredibly diverse field of study in the range of topics it spans. like, here's a quick overview of some of the things i studied while majoring in i.s.:

- how trump's racist migration policies worked to sustain state identity

- gender discrimination policy in india

- how traditional theories of state security contributed to violent conflict in bosnia + rwanda

- same-sex marriage policy in south america

- how traditional conceptions of state security contribute to gendered violence against migrant women

if u are noticing a pattern here....that is because i minored in gender studies lmao. also i really hate realism + traditional conceptions of state security <3