Un/Mapping the International: PhD Workshop and Polyphonic Encounter

Un/Mapping the International: PhD Workshop and Polyphonic Encounter

Date: Thursday 20th March 2025

Location: Queen Mary University of London

‘Un/Mapping the International’ is a day of events organised through Queen Mary SPIR’s Research Group on International Political Sociology which intends to investigate different ways of imagining, composing, dispersing and disrupting the spatiality of the international. To this end, RGIPS has organised a PhD Methodology Workshop and a roundtable-style Polyphonic Encounter to take place on the same day. We are delighted to welcome Dr Aya Nassar (Durham University) and Dr Farai Chipato (University of Glasgow), who are kindly running the PhD Workshop and participating in the afternoon roundtable, together with Dr Kerry Goettlich (University of Reading) and Timor Landherr (Queen Mary University of London). The day’s events will be followed by a relaxed mixer at a local pub, The Cherry.

Programme:

10:00-12:00 – Critical Approaches to Spatiality in International Relations: Advanced Methodology Workshop (doctoral students only)

12:00-13:00 – Lunch and informal networking for workshop participants (invitation only)

13:00-15:00 – Polyphonic Encounter: Un/Mapping the International (open to the public)

16:15-18:15 – Informal catch-up session at The Cherry (open to the public)

Critical Approaches to Spatiality in International Relations: Advanced Methodology Workshop

Time: 10:00-12:00

Location: Bancroft 3.17

During this workshop, Aya Nassar and Farai Chipato will guide PhD and research students toward developing their own critical approach to spatiality and political topography in international relations. Students can expect an exciting interdisciplinary methodology workshop which challenges traditional notions of space, territory, and international order, and provides guidance and feedback on on-going research projects. This event is generously funded by LISS-DTP's Student-Led Activity Fund and is thus open to any research student at Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London, and Imperial College London. The workshop will be followed by a lunch and informal networking session, 12:00-13:00.

PhD students interested in attending the workshop should email Anastasia Barclay (a.j.barclay@hss24.qmul.ac.uk) and Brunno Cunha (b.v.freitascunha@qmul.ac.uk) with their full name, affiliated institution, and research interests.

Polyphonic Encounter: Un/Mapping the International

Time: 13:00-15:00

Location: Arts Two, 3.20

This Polyphonic Encounter is part of a broader series of roundtable events led by RGIPS. Given that the international is traditionally represented via geographical maps, and sovereignty usually taken as the horizon of possibility for understanding the dynamics and spatiality of world politics, we seek to challenge the notion of ‘mapping’ as a purely cartographic exercise intended to represent territorial demarcation. To this end, this Polyphonic Encounter brings together contributors spanning a broad range of thematic and methodological backgrounds in order to explore the alternative imaginaries and potentialities that arise when we engage critically with topographic modes of representing the international. Contributors include Aya Nassar, whose research employs geopoetic methodologies to explore the complexities of urban spaces, memory, and representation in the Middle East and beyond; Farai Chipato, whose research engages with African politics, international interventions, Black political thought, and the Anthropocene at multiple geographic scales; Timor Landherr, whose work critically examines the interplays between border externalisation, race, capital, and the production of transnational space; and Kerry Goettlich, who considers the colonial origins of modern territoriality from an interdisciplinary perspective which combines IR theory, international history, and historical sociology.  

This event is open to the public. Tickets via Eventbrite

Informal catch-up session

Time: 16:15-18:15

Location: The Cherry, E3

Everyone is invited to an informal catch-up at Queen Mary’s local pub, The Cherry.