Taking over the reins of a high-quality blog is an exciting endeavor. I would like to welcome readers back to “Ivory Tower” by laying out new directions, and enumerating the themes, topics, and content that we will be exploring on “Ivory Tower”.
In a world where the academy has become increasingly professionalized, where teaching is becoming increasingly central to the work that professors do, and where conversations about marginalization and (in)justice in the academy are needed, “Ivory Tower” seeks to provide a forum for instructors of international relations (broadly defined) to create dialogue, provide practical and intellectual support, and forwarding the enterprise of international relations through advice and reflection on teaching, research, and service.
Five questions stand out to me as worth further exploration in this forum:
–What are some practical strategies for engaging students and the broader community in the study of IR?
–What are the struggles and processes of the actual conduct of research in the field of IR?
–How can research, teaching, and service integrate in productive ways for the field of IR?
–How do the unique experiences of students and instructors affect the development of the field of IR, the quality of education, equality in the academy, and the reach of public engagement?
–How is our teaching, research, and service connected to concerns with transformation and social justice?
As a collaborative blog, “Ivory Tower” welcomes submissions and pitches for articles that might engage with these questions, or with broader issues related to the way that IR is taught, researched, or applied on campuses and in communities. Please contact dtatum@fmarion.edu for more information on how you might contribute to the conversation.
Further Reading on E-International Relations
- Returning to Chajsy, Belarus: Back to Stalin
- The Military Coup in Myanmar: Back to the ‘Normality’ of Autocracy?
- Afghanistan’s ‘Liberal’ History: Back to Year Zero?
- Working with and Supporting Teaching Assistants
- What to Do When You Don’t Like a Topic You Teach?
- Africa + 1: Stepping Back from a Costly Pragmatism
