October 1
In this class we examine the intersections of militarism, gender, affect and patriotism, and reflect critically on how militarism invades the everyday and securititizes ‘the other’ to legitimate the use of state violence domestically (policing, detention, detainment, surveillance) and externally (war, foreign intervention, drones, bombs, torture, detention). We will work towards a better grasp central concepts of miltiarism, militarization and martial politics by reflecting on how our own lives have been militarized historically, geographically and in the space of the everyday.

In addition to the readings, bring a newspaper article, an object, a photo that links to and tells a story of gender + / or militarism / militarization / martial politics.

Militarism | the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Militarization | The mechanisms and processes by which we consent to military oppositions to resolve a real or perceived threat and accept the military as part and parcel of everyday life (to normalize) (De Mel)
Othering | Process by which persons are considered inferior in contract to a ‘norm’: The norm is framed as positive, orderly, protector, rational: the other is framed as backwards, chaotic, dangerous, aggressive.  Othering is both internal and external to a state, based on religion, gender, race and sexuality. Processes that simulataneously dehumanizes and legitimates militarism.
Securitization | Process through which a person or event comes to be seen as a threat to one’s national security and legitimate extra-ordinary measures
Martial Law | A state of military control of the general population. Authority may be granted to a state’s military forces during war or other emergency situations, or seized, unconstitutionally, in a coup d’état. (Oxford University Press)

Readings

1. 60 words, Podcast, Radio Lab and This twitter thread, by Rozina Ali and First Writing Since, by Suheir Hammad
2. Howell, Alison. ‘Forget “militarization”: Race, disability and the “martial politics” of the police and of the university.’ International Feminist Journal of Politics 20.2 (2018): 117-136.
3. Jenny Hedström. ‘Militarized social reproduction: women’s labour and parastate armed conflict’, Critical Military Studies, 8:1, (2022)58-76, DOI: 10.1080/23337486.2020.1715056
4. Parashar, Swati. “Discursive (in) securities and postcolonial anxiety: Enabling excessive militarism in India.” Security Dialogue 49.1-2 (2018): 123-135.

Presentation
Doris Salcedo , Fragmentos. (Su)

Further Reading

1. Natalie Jester, Rosie Walters, Gender Washing War: Arms Manufacturers and the Hijacking of #InternationalWomensDay, International Political Sociology, Volume 18, Issue 3, September 2024, olae021, https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olae021
2. Lutz, Catherine. “Making war at home in the United States: Militarization and the current crisis.” American Anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 723-735 (13 pages)

3. Mama, Amina, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Militarism, conflict and women’s activism in the global era: Challenges and prospects for women in three West African contexts.” Feminist Review 101.1 (2012): 97-123.
4. Satkunanathan, Ambika, ‘Sri Lanka: The Impact of Militarization on Women’, in Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict (2018; online edn, Oxford Academic, 6 Dec. 2017). Pp 579–590.
5. Mama, Amina, ‘Colonialism’, in Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict (2018; online edn, Oxford Academic, 6 Dec. 2017: 265–275
6. Ketola, Hanna. “Familial Ties as a Gendered Relationality in Civil War: Militarisation, Violence and Politics.” Civil Wars (2023): 1-23.
7. Maya Eichler, ‘Gendered Militarism’, in Väyrynen, Tarja, et al., eds. Routledge handbook of feminist peace research. Routledge, 2021.
8. Eichler, Maya. “Militarized masculinities in international relations.” Brown J. World Aff. 21 (2014): 81.
9. Enloe, Cynthia. ‘How do you militarize a can of soup?’ Maneuvers: The international politics of militarizing women’s lives. Univ of California Press, 2000.
10. Ketola, Hanna. “Familial Ties as a Gendered Relationality in Civil War: Militarisation, Violence and Politics.” Civil Wars (2023): 1-23.
11. Mama, Amina, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Militarism, conflict and women’s activism in the global era: Challenges and prospects for women in three West African contexts.” Feminist Review 101.1 (2012): 97-123.
12. Peterson, V. Spike. “Gendered identities, ideologies, and practices in the context of war and militarism.” Gender, war, and militarism: Feminist perspectives (2010): 17-29. (12 pages – this available online in in google books).
13. MacKenzie, Megan, and Nicole Wegner. “Militarism and Security.” Gender Matters in Global Politics. Routledge, 2022. 288-300.
14. Shepherd, Laura J. “Making war safe for women? National Action Plans and the militarisation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.” International Political Science Review 37.3 (2016): 324-335.
15. Somewhere over the Arabian Sea, The American Life (podcast)
16. Dowler, Lorraine. Gender, militarization and sovereignty.” Geography Compass 6.8 (2012): 490-499.