Abstract: What explains the near total absence of women in histories of international thought and the disciplinary history of International Relations? In this lecture, Professor Patricia Owens argues that women’s absence from histories of international thought is not based on a lack of women’s thinking about international politics or contribution to the early science of IR. A diverse array of historical women thought deeply about international relations and significant numbers were present in the early years of IR, especially in the first decades of the twentieth-century. However, the intellectual contributions of these historical women have been obscured, and on occasion even actively erased.

Patricia Owens is Professor and Chair of the Department of International Relations at the University of Sussex. Previously she held positions in London and Oxford (where she recieved a teaching excellence award). In the summer of 2018, Owens will be Visiting Kathleen Fitzpatrick Professor in the Department of History at Sydney University.

All are welcome. Please contact barnaby.king@kellogg.ox.ac.uk or ishrat.hossain@linacre.ox.ac.uk with any queries.