Subject Area: Politics and International Relations

What is theory? What assumptions guide us when we theorise about events or phenomena in global politics? And what does it mean to undertake theoretically informed research in the discipline of International Relations? This course encourages you to consider the broader context of the discipline through critical, reflective and engaged thinking about contemporary international relations. The course draws on your previous experience of scholarship, both in IR and in other disciplines, to engage with contemporary debates and issues. In this course, you will revisit the theoretical literature of the discipline, examine its methodologies, and discuss the disciplinary politics of knowledge production through the process of designing a research project relevant to contemporary debates in the International Relations.