Even Today, a Western and Gendered Social Science: Persistent Geographic and Gender Biases in Undergraduate IR Teaching

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cleeland Knight
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
The United States ◽  
Female Faculty ◽  
First Finding ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
And Gender

Abstract A perennial critique of international relations is that the field focuses disproportionately on the United States and Europe and contains a gender bias in terms of ignoring issues of particular concern to women. The field is also infamous for how difficult it is for female scholars to publish and have their publications cited. This study evaluates these claims of bias in the area of undergraduate international relations teaching by analyzing an original dataset of 48 introduction to international relations syllabi from ten countries. The study analyzes the authors of required readings and the theories and empirical topics taught, and finds that the geographic and gender biases are both firmly in place. The first finding is that courses assign readings predominantly from US-resident, US-trained, male authors, even those courses taught outside the United States and those taught by female faculty. A second finding is that assigned readings focus overwhelmingly on the United States more than any other country or region, and only 1 percent of readings focus specifically on gender-related issues.

scholarly journals Questioning Racial and Gender Bias in AI-based Recommendations: Do Espoused National Cultural Values Matter?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjul Gupta ◽  
Carlos M. Parra ◽  
Denis Dennehy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
The United States ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
And Gender

AbstractOne realm of AI, recommender systems have attracted significant research attention due to concerns about its devastating effects to society’s most vulnerable and marginalised communities. Both media press and academic literature provide compelling evidence that AI-based recommendations help to perpetuate and exacerbate racial and gender biases. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extent to which individuals might question AI-based recommendations when perceived as biased. To address this gap in knowledge, we investigate the effects of espoused national cultural values on AI questionability, by examining how individuals might question AI-based recommendations due to perceived racial or gender bias. Data collected from 387 survey respondents in the United States indicate that individuals with espoused national cultural values associated to collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance are more likely to question biased AI-based recommendations. This study advances understanding of how cultural values affect AI questionability due to perceived bias and it contributes to current academic discourse about the need to hold AI accountable.

scholarly journals Rugged Meritocratists: The Role of Overt Bias and the Meritocratic Ideology in Trump Supporters’ Opposition to Social Justice Efforts

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311771239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin A. Cech
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
And Gender

Opposition to social justice efforts plays a key role in reproducing social inequalities in the United States. Focusing on supporters of Donald Trump as a possible exemplar of politically structured resistance to these efforts, the author asks whether and why Trump supporters are more likely than other Americans to oppose social justice efforts. Analysis of a proportionally representative, postelection survey ( n = 1,151) reveals that Trump supporters are indeed more opposed to social justice efforts. They also express greater overt race, class, and gender bias, yet this bias does not explain their opposition. Rather, many Trump supporters are “rugged meritocratists” who oppose these efforts because they believe U.S. society is already fair. To expand support for social justice efforts, rugged meritocratists must first be convinced that systemic inequalities still exist.

Teaching internationalisation?: Surveying the lack of pedagogical and theoretical diversity in American International Relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-82
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Research Agendas

This article contributes to the discussion of internationalisation in higher education in the context of the international relations (IR) subfield of political science. The field of IR might seem by definition to be ‘internationalised’, but the underlying theoretical assumptions of the field, its social science rationalism and privileging of the unitary nation-state exhibit an American or Eurocentric bias. This Western bias with its emphasis on security issues is then replicated in research agendas and reproduced in higher education classrooms across the United States and beyond. I argue that the way forward to promoting internationalisation partially lies with promoting plurality and diversity within research and in the classroom or what Lamy calls ‘challenging hegemonic paradigms’ (2007).

scholarly journals Eugenics, sterilization, and historical memory in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 195-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Minna Stern ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
And Gender

Abstract From the 1920s to the 1950s, California sterilized approximately 20,000 people in state homes and hospitals based on a eugenic law that authorized medical superintendents to perform reproductive surgeries on patients deemed unfit and “suffering from a mental affliction likely to be inherited.” Working with a unique resource – a dataset created from 19,000 sterilization recommendations – my team and I have reconstructed patterns and experiences of institutionalization of sterilizations. This article presents several of our important initial findings related to ethnic and gender bias in sterilization policies, and reflects on the relevance of the history for contemporary issues in genomics and social justice.

Trust, but Verify

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This book uses trust—with its emotional and predictive aspects—to explore international relations in the second half of the Cold War, beginning with the late 1960s. The détente of the 1970s led to the development of some limited trust between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lessened international tensions and enabled advances in areas such as arms control. However, it also created uncertainty in other areas, especially on the part of smaller states that depended on their alliance leaders for protection. The chapters in this volume look at how the “emotional” side of the conflict affected the dynamics of various Cold War relations: between the superpowers, within the two ideological blocs, and inside individual countries on the margins of the East–West confrontation.

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geir Lundestad
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
The West ◽  
Economic Modernization

There are no laws in history. Realists, liberals, and others are both right and wrong. Although no one can be certain that military incidents may not happen, for the foreseeable future China and the United States are unlikely to favor major war. They have cooperated well for almost four decades now. China is likely to continue to focus on its economic modernization. It has far to go to measure up to the West. The American-Chinese economies are still complementary. A conflict with the United States or even with China’s neighbors would have damaging repercussions for China’s economic goals. The United States is so strong that it would make little sense for China to take it on militarily. There are also other deterrents against war, from nuclear weapons to emerging norms about international relations. It is anybody’s guess what will happen after the next few decades. History indicates anything is possible.

The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Murray
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Rising Powers ◽  
Peaceful Rise ◽  
Rising Power ◽  
Struggle For Recognition ◽  
Power Transitions

How can established powers manage the peaceful rise of new great powers? With The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations, the author offers a new answer to this perennial question in international relations, arguing that power transitions are principally social phenomena whereby rising powers struggle to obtain recognition of their identity as a great power. At the center of great power identity formation is the acquisition of particular symbolic capabilities—such as battlesheips, aircraft carriers, or nuclear weapons—that are representative of great power status and that allow rising powers to experience their uncertain social status as a brute fact. When a rising power is recognized, this power acquisition is considered legitimate and its status in the international order secured, leading to a peaceful power transition. If a rising power is misrecognized, its assertive foreign policy is perceived to be for revisionist purposes, which must be contained by the established powers. Revisionism—rather than the product of a material power structure that encourages aggression or domestic political struggles—is a social construct that emerges through a rising power’s social interactions with the established powers as it attempts to gain recognition of its identity. The question of peaceful power transition has taken on increased salience in recent years with the emergence of China as an economic and military rival of the United States. Highlighting the social dynamics of power transitions, this book offers a powerful new framework through which to understand the rise of China and how the United States can facilitate its peaceful rise.

scholarly journals Subjective cognitive decline higher among sexual and gender minorities in the United States, 2015–2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D. Flatt ◽  
Ethan C. Cicero ◽  
Nickolas H. Lambrou ◽  
Whitney Wharton ◽  
Joel G. Anderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
The United States ◽  
Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽  
Sexual And Gender Minorities ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
And Gender
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