Teaching Curve 31 Anahita Arian on Teaching Non-Western IR Theory

ISA - The Teaching Curve

This month’s episode is with Dr. Anahita Arian, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Geopolitics and a College Research Associate at King’s College at Cambridge University in the UK. Among other positions in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, Anahita has taught International Relations at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and at the University of Erfurt in Germany. She is the author of a forthcoming chapter on teaching Non-Western IR theory that will appear in the Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of IR Theory.

The episode explores

· How teaching theoretical pluriversality requires significantly different approaches than teaching a focused canon.

· The importance of teaching students how to wrestle with the emotions studying global politics can evoke.

· Pedagogical tactics for improving that emotional intelligence in three overlapping phases.

The interview was edited for length.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the steering committee for the International Studies Association’s Innovative Pedagogy Initiative, the folks at ISA HQ, and special thanks to Joel Lorenzatti, Sarah Dorr,and Josephine Anderson for logistical and technical support.

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For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047