Dr Kate Millar

This course is available on the MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations (Research), MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics) and MSc in Political Science (Global Politics). This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

All International Relations (IR4) optional courses at LSE are Controlled Access and require an application via LfY. Students must include a statement in their LfY application of no more than 200 words explaining their interest in the course and its relevance to their academic and career goals.

Application deadline: 12:00 noon, Friday 25 September 2026.

Notification of outcome: by 12:00 noon, Monday 28 September 2026.

After this date, students should consult the MSc Course Availability Spreadsheet for remaining spaces on IR4-level courses. 

For further details, see the LSE Selecting Courses webpage in the first instance or contact IR.Programmes@lse.ac.uk only if necessary.

All students are required to obtain permission of the Teacher Responsible by completing the online application linked to LSE for You.  Admission to the course is not guaranteed.

This course places the relationship between gender and power - as noun, verb, and structure - at the centre of how we understand the practices and events studied as global politics, and the disciplines and study of international relations. Grounded in feminist theory, it introduces students to feminist methods and ways of knowing.

The course unfolds in two sections, moving from theoretical foundations to an examination of gender and the structural, transnational, colonial, and historical processes of global politics. Each structural analysis of the gendering of international politics is paired with a focused examination of substantive areas including security, development, NGOs and transnational social movements, environmental challenges and climate change, and international law and organisations.

These overarching themes are brought to life through issue-specific case studies - drawn from current events - such as sexuality and migration and gender and the informal economy, explored in seminar discussion. Throughout, the course pays particular attention to the ongoing construction and transmission of gendered and gendering global hierarchies. The course combines lecture and seminar components.

15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students MUST submit TWO formative components prior to the summative assessment of the essay:

• A research question (ending in a question mark!), via email to the lecturer, in Week 4, for feedback
• A 2-page (max) bullet-point (no prose!) outline in Week 8 Autumn Term for feedback.

• Anzaldúa, G., 1987. Borderlands: la frontera (Vol. 3). San Francisco: Aunt Lute. Ahmed, S., 2017. Living a feminist life. Duke University Press.
• Berlant, L.G., 2011. Cruel optimism (Vol. 226). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. routledge.
• Halberstam, J. 2011. The queer art of failure. Duke University Press.
• Green, J. A., ed (2017). Making space for indigenous feminism. Zed Books, 2nd ed.
• Minh-Ha, T.T., 2009. Woman, native, other: Writing postcoloniality and feminism. Indiana  University Press.
• Solnit, R. Men Explain Things To Me (London: Granta) Webb, R., 2016. How Not to Be a Boy (London: Canongate)

Blog post (25%).

Essay (75%, 4000 words).

Blog Post (25%): One (500-word max) blog post, to a Moodle forum on a week assigned by the instructor (marked with grade, 15%). Two (250-word max) response to colleagues’ blog posts posed for discussion in seminar, also uploaded to Moodle (completion/participation grade, 10%)

Essay (75%): Students will submit a 4000-word original research essay. Students are free to choose any topic relating to gendered/gendering international politics, with the caveat that they must be able to give a full account of their question within the word limit. Essays will be assessed based on their structure/organization, clarity of language, integration of theory, correct use of concepts, strength of analysis, originality of argument, and use of empirics. More detailed guidance will be provided in seminar.