Race and Racial Exclusion in Security Studies: A Survey of Scholars

Abstract

Increased attention to racialized knowledge and methodological whiteness has swept the political science discipline, especially international relations. Yet an important dimension of race and racism continues to be ignored: the presence and status of scholars of color in the discipline. In contrast to other fields, there is little research on (under)representation of scholars of color in security studies, and no systematic studies of race and racial exclusion that center their voices and experiences. Building on scholarship that contends with the fundamental whiteness of academia and knowledge creation, we present results from a 2019 survey of members of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. The data show that scholars of color and white scholars experience the field in dramatically different ways; scholars of color report at greater rates feeling unwelcome, experiencing harassment, and desiring more professional development opportunities. Dozens of studies across academia support these findings.

Data Availability Statement

The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available in the Security Studies Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ROOSKG.

Notes

1 Jamila Michener, “George Floyd’s Killing Was Just the Spark,” Monkey Cage (blog), Washington Post, 11 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/11/george-floyds-killing-was-just-spark-heres-what-really-made-protests-explode/.

2 Adrienne Brown, “Seeing Race in a Pandemic,” Foreign Policy, 1 July 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/01/physical-built-environment-affects-perceptions-race/; LaGina Gause, “Black People Have Protested Police Killings for Years,” Monkey Cage (blog), Washington Post, 12 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/12/black-people-have-protested-police-killings-years-heres-why-officials-are-finally-responding/.

3 Gurminder K. Bhambra et al., “Why Is Mainstream International Relations Blind to Racism?” Foreign Policy, 3 July 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/ 07/03/why-is-mainstream-international-relations-ir-blind-to-racism-colonialism/; Robbie Shilliam, “When Did Racism Become Solely a Domestic Issue?” Foreign Policy, 23 June 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/23/racism-ir-international-relations-domestic/; Kelebogile Zvobgo and Meredith Loken, “Why Race Matters in International Relations,” Foreign Policy 237 (2020): 11–13; Robbie Shilliam, Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2021).

4 Nidhi Subbaraman, “How #BlackInTheIvory Put a Spotlight on Racism in Academia,” Nature, News Q&A, 11 June 2020, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01741-7.

5 Daniel Maliniak, Ryan Powers, and Barbara F. Walter, “The Gender Citation Gap in International Relations,” International Organization 67, no. 4 (October 2013): 889–92; Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, Samantha Lange, and Holly Brus, “Gendered Citation Patterns in International Relations Journals,” International Studies Perspectives 14, no. 4 (November 2013): 485–92; Kiran Phull, Gokhan Ciflikli, and Gustav Meibauer, “Gender and Bias in the International Relations Curriculum: Insights from Reading Lists,” European Journal of International Relations 25, no. 2 (June 2019): 383–407; Christina Fattore, “Nevertheless, She Persisted: Women’s Experiences and Perceptions within the International Studies Association,” International Studies Perspectives 20, no. 1 (February 2019): 46–62.

6 Geeta Chowdhry and Shirin M. Rai, “The Geographies of Exclusion and the Politics of Inclusion: Race-Based Exclusions in the Teaching of International Relations,” International Studies Perspectives 10, no. 1 (February 2009): 84–91; Arlene B. Tickner and Ole Wæver, eds., International Relations Scholarship around the World (New York: Routledge, 2009).

7 We follow standard practice in grouping respondents into the two categories of white scholars and scholars of color. See, for example, Kathryn B. H. Clancy et al., “Double Jeopardy in Astronomy and Planetary Science: Women of Color Face Greater Risks of Gendered and Racial Harassment,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 122, no. 7 (July 2017): 1610–23; Leonora King et al., “Diversity in Geoscience: Participation, Behaviour, and the Division of Scientific Labour at a Canadian Geoscience Conference,” FACETS 3, no. 1 (October 2018): 415–40.

8 Shlomo S. Sawilowsky and R. Clifford Blair, “A More Realistic Look at the Robustness and Type II Error Properties of the t test to Departures from Population Normality,” Psychological Bulletin 111, no. 2 (March 1992): 359. See also G. E. P. Box and S. L. Andersen, “Permutation Theory in the Derivation of Robust Criteria and the Study of Departures from Assumption,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Methodological) 17, no. 1 (1955): 1–26; C. Alan Boneau, “The Effects of Violations of Assumptions Underlying the t Test,” Psychological Bulletin 57, no. 1 (1960): 49–64; J. C. F. de Winter, “Using the Student’s t-Test with Extremely Small Sample Sizes,” Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 18, no. 10 (August 2013): 1–12.

9 Daniel Maliniak et al., “Is International Relations a Global Discipline? Hegemony, Insularity, and Diversity in the Field,” Security Studies 27, no. 3 (July–September 2018): 448–84.

10 Shaun R. Harper, “Race without Racism: How Higher Education Researchers Minimize Racist Institutional Norms,” Review of Higher Education 36, no. 1 (Fall 2012): 9–29; James Joseph Scheurich and Michelle D. Young, “Coloring Epistemologies: Are Our Research Epistemologies Racially Biased?” Educational Research 26, no. 4 (May 1997): 4–16.

11 Karina L. Walters et al., “‘Before They Kill My Spirit Entirely’: Insights into the Lived Experiences of American Indian Alaska Native Faculty at Research Universities,” Race Ethnicity and Education 22, no. 5 (September 2019): 610–33; King et al., “Diversity in Geoscience”; T. Elon Dancy II and M. Christopher Brown II, “The Mentoring and Induction of Educators of Color: Addressing the Impostor Syndrome in Academe,” Journal of School Leadership 21, no. 4 (July 2011): 607–34; Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, “Leveraging Diversity in Political Science for Institutional and Disciplinary Change,” PS: Political Science & Politics 48, no. 3 (July 2015): 454–58; Lee Ann Fujii, “The Real Problem with Diversity in Political Science,” Duck of Minerva, 27 April 2017, https://duckofminerva.com/2017/04/the-real-problem-with-diversity-in-political-science.html; Rebecca A. Reid and Todd A. Curry, “Are We There Yet? Addressing Diversity in Political Science Subfields,” PS: Political Science & Politics 52, no. 2 (April 2019): 281–86.

12 Ann M. Beutel and Donna J. Nelson, “The Gender and Race-Ethnicity of Faculty in Top Social Science Research Departments,” Social Science Journal 43, no. 1 (2006): 111–25; José F. Moreno et al., The Revolving Door for Underrepresented Minority Faculty in Higher Education: An Analysis from the Campus Diversity Initiative (San Francisco: James Irvine Foundation, 2006); Sinclair-Chapman, “Leveraging Diversity.”

13 Natasha Behl, “Diasporic Researcher: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Gender and Race in Political Science,” Politics, Groups, and Identities 5, no. 4 (2017): 580–98.

14 Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd, “Women of Color, Space Invaders, and Political Science: Practical Strategies for Transforming Institutional Practices,” PS: Political Science & Politics 48, no. 3 (July 2015): 464–67; Cathy A. Trower and Richard P. Chait, “Faculty Diversity: Too Little for Too Long,” Harvard Magazine, March–April 2002, 33–37.

15 Nirmal Puwar, Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (Oxford: Berg, 2004), 58; Alexander-Floyd, “Women of Color”; Sara McLaughlin Mitchell and Vicki L. Hesli, “Women Don’t Ask? Women Don’t Say No? Bargaining and Service in the Political Science Profession,” PS: Political Science and Politics 46, no. 2 (April 2013): 355–69.

16 Jessica Blatt, Race and the Making of American Political Science (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018); Fujii, “Real Problem”; Reid and Curry, “Are We There Yet?”

17 Kalwant Bhopal, Hazel Brown, and June Jackson, “Should I Stay or Should I Go? BME Academics and the Decision to Leave UK Higher Education,” in Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy, ed. Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 125–39.

18 King et al., “Diversity in Geoscience”; Heidi Safia Mirza, “Decolonizing Higher Education: Black Feminism and the Intersectionality of Race and Gender,” Journal of Feminist Scholarship 7, no. 7 (Fall 2014/Spring 2015): 1–12; Sara Ahmed, On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012); Isis H. Settles, NiCole T. Buchanan, and Kristie Dotson, “Scrutinized but Not Recognized: (In)visibility and Hypervisibility Experiences of Faculty of Color,” Journal of Vocational Behavior 113 (August 2019): 62–74.

19 Clancy et al., “Double Jeopardy”; Carla A. Zimmerman, Adrienne R. Carter-Sowell, and Xiaohong Xu, “Examining Workplace Ostracism Experiences in Academia: Understanding How Differences in the Faculty Ranks Influence Inclusive Climates on Campus,” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 1–9.

20 Settles, Buchanan, and Dotson, “Scrutinized but Not Recognized.”

21 Linda A. Renzulli, Linda Grant, and Sheetija Kathuria, “Race, Gender, and the Wage Gap: Comparing Faculty Salaries in Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” Gender and Society 20, no. 4 (August 2006): 491–510; Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, “The Inequities of the Tenure-Track System,” Inside Higher Ed, 7 June 2019, https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2019/06/07/nonwhite-faculty-face-significant-disadvantages-tenure-track-opinion; Olivia P. Tallet, “Latino Faculty Face ‘Gross’ Pay Disparity at UT Austin,” Houston Chronicle, 6 January 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Latino-professors-confront-grotesque-14948691.php.

22 Roxanne Lynn Doty, “The Bounds of ‘Race’ in International Relations,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 22, no. 3 (December 1993): 443–61; Amitav Acharya, “Global International Relations (IR) and Regional Worlds: A New Agenda for International Studies,” International Studies Quarterly 58, no. 4 (December 2014): 647–59.

23 Audie Klotz, “Norms Reconstituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S. Sanctions against South Africa,” International Organization 49, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 451–78; Robert Vitalis, “The Graceful and Generous Liberal Gesture: Making Racism Invisible in American International Relations,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 29, no. 2 (June 2000): 331–56; Errol A. Henderson, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism in International Relations Theory,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 26, no. 1 (2013): 71–92; Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019); Vanessa E. Quince, “Racism by Design: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in the Design of International Trade Agreements” (PhD diss., University of Washington, 2018); Paige Sechrest, “Violence by the People, for the People: Torture and Brutality in Democratic States” (paper presented at the University of Washington International Security Colloquium, 30 September 2016); Sankaran Krishna, “Race, Amnesia, and the Education of International Relations,” Alternatives 26, no. 4 (October–December 2001): 401–24; Siba N. Grovogui, “Come to Africa: A Hermeneutics of Race in International Theory,” Alternatives 26, no. 4 (October–December 2001): 425–48; Henderson, “Hidden in Plain Sight”; Alexander Anievas, Nivi Manchanda, and Robbie Shilliam, eds., Race and Racism in international Relations: Confronting the Global Color Line (London: Routledge, 2015); Cecelia Lynch, “The Moral Aporia of Race in International Relations,” International Relations 33, no. 2 (June 2019): 267–85; Meera Sabaratnam, “Is IR Theory White? Racialised Subject-Positioning in Three Canonical Texts,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 49, no. 1 (September 2020): 3–31; David L. Blaney and Arlene B. Tickner, “International Relations in the Prison of Colonial Modernity,” International Relations 31, no. 1 (March 2017): 71–75; Bruce Russett and Taylor Arnold, “Who Talks, and Who’s Listening? Networks of International Security Studies,” Security Dialogue 41, no. 6 (December 2010): 589–98.

24 Ole Wæver and Arelene B. Tickner, “Introduction: Geocultural Epistemologies,” in Wæver and Tickner, International Relations Scholarship, 3.

25 Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey, “The Postcolonial Moment in Security Studies,” Review of International Studies 32, no. 2 (April 2006): 329–52; Alison Howell and Melanie Richter-Montpetit, “Racism in Foucauldian Security Studies: Biopolitics, Liberal War, and the Whitewashing of Colonial and Racial Violence,” International Political Sociology 13, no. 1 (March 2019): 2–19; Christian Davenport, Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

26 Randolph B. Persaud, “Security Studies, Postcolonialism and the Third World,” in Race, Gender, and Culture in International Relations: Postcolonial Perspectives, ed. Persaud and Alina Sajed (New York: Routledge, 2018), 155–79.

27 Fiona B. Adamson, “Pushing the Boundaries: Can We ‘Decolonize’ Security Studies?” Journal of Global Security Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2020): 131. Critical approaches to terrorism studies have meanwhile recognized the role that securitized racialized narratives play in state policymaking and counterterrorism and immigration practices and legislation. See, for example, Marysia Zalewski, “Thinking Feminism and Race through the War on Terror,” Critical Studies on Terrorism 6, no. 2 (2013): 313–15; Sanne Groothuis, “Researching Race, Racialisation, and Racism in Critical Terrorism Studies: Clarifying Conceptual Ambiguities,” Critical Studies on Terrorism 13, no. 4 (2020): 680–701; David Moffette and Shaira Vadasaria, “Uninhibited Violence: Race and the Securitization of Immigration,” Critical Studies on Security 4, no. 3 (2016): 291–305.

28 Steven R. David, “Explaining Third World Alignment,” World Politics 43, no. 2 (January 1991): 233–56; Brian L. Job, ed., The Insecurity Dilemma: National Security of Third World States (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1992); Mohammed Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament: State Making, Regional Conflict, and the International System (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1995).

29 Renee L. Buhr and Nicholas Sideras, “Finding the Invisible Women: Gender Stereotypes versus Student Interest in Foreign Policy and Security Subfields,” PS: Political Science & Politics 48, no. 3 (July 2015): 473–77; Maria Rost Rublee et al., “Do You Feel Welcome? Gendered Experiences in International Security Studies,” Journal of Global Security Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2020): 216–26; Steven T. Zech et al., “Active Learning and the Graduate Classroom: How Gender and International Student Status Affect Preferences and Experiences,” Journal of Political Science Education 18, no. 1 (2022): 22–34.

30 Adamson, “Pushing the Boundaries.” See also Shampa Biswas, “‘Nuclear Apartheid’ as Political Position: Race as a Postcolonial Resource?” Alternatives 26, no. 4 (October–December 2001): 485–522.

31 Barkawi and Laffey, “Postcolonial Moment”; Nicola Pratt, “Reconceptualizing Gender, Reinscribing Racial–Sexual Boundaries in International Security: The Case of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security,’” International Studies Quarterly 57, no. 4 (December 2013): 772–83.

32 Shilliam, “When Did Racism.” For examples of professional experiences of racial and gendered inequality in IR, see Christian Davenport, “The Dark Side of International Studies: Race, Racism, and Research in International Studies,” International Studies Perspectives 9, no. 4 (November 2008): 445–49; Minion K. C. Morrison, “Reflections of a Senior Scholar on the Profession of International Studies,” International Studies Perspectives 9, no. 4 (November 2008): 459–63; Brandon Valeriano, “The Lack of Diverse Perspectives in the International Relations Field: The Politics of Being Alone,” International Studies Perspectives 9, no. 4 (November 2008): 450–54.

33 Meg K. Guliford, “Even Progressive Academics Can Be Racist. I’ve Experienced It Firsthand,” Washington Post, 11 September 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/09/11/even-progressive-academics-can-be-racist-ive-experienced-it-firsthand/.

34 Guliford, “Even Progressive Academics.”

35 Zvobgo and Loken, “Why Race Matters.”

36 Naazneen H. Barma, “The Leaky Pipeline,” Defense 360, 27 October 2020, Center for Strategic and International Studies, https://defense360.csis.org/the-leaky-pipeline/. See also Katlyn M. Turner et al., “A Call for Antiracist Action and Accountability in the US Nuclear Community,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 24 August 2020, https://thebulletin.org/2020/08/a-call-for-antiracist-action-and-accountability-in-the-us-nuclear-community/.

37 Ethics approval was granted through Monash University.

38 Nonresponse rates are a much smaller risk to survey estimates than previously assumed; for a review of the research, see Robert M. Groves, “Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys,” in “Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys,” special issue, Public Opinion Quarterly 70, no. 5 (2006): 646–75. However, two key assessments of the threat of nonresponse bias—comparisons with population and with external data—indicate that the potential of nonresponse bias within our survey is low. See, for example, Jonathan R. B. Halbesleben and Marilyn V. Whitman, “Evaluating Survey Quality in Health Services Research: A Decision Framework for Assessing Nonresponse Bias,” Health Services Research 48, no. 3 (June 2013): 913–30.

39 Clancy et al., “Double Jeopardy.”

40 ISA Headquarters, email to Maria Rost Rublee, 21 January 2021.

41 Milo Schield, “Random Sampling versus Representative Samples,” American Statistical Association 1994 Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education (August 1994): 107–10.

42 Giampietro Gobo, “Sampling, Representativeness and Generalizability,” in Qualitative Research Practice, ed. Clive Seale et al. (London: SAGE, 2004), 405–26.

43 Marie T. Henehan and Meredith Reid Sarkees, “Open Doors and Closed Ceilings: Gender-Based Patterns and Attitudes in the International Studies Association,” International Studies Perspectives 10, no. 4 (November 2009): 428–46; Rublee et al., “Do You Feel Welcome?”; Fattore, “Nevertheless, She Persisted”; Maliniak et al., “Is International Relations a Global Discipline?”

44 Marijke Breuning et al., “The Great Equalizer? Gender, Parenting, and Scholarly Productivity during the Global Pandemic,” PS: Political Science & Politics 54, no. 3 (July 2021): 427–31.

45 Malachi Willis, Ana J. Bridges, and Kristen N. Jozkowski, “Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Rates of Publishing and Inclusion in Scientific-Review Processes,” Translational Issues in Psychological Science 7, no. 4 (December 2021): 451–61.

46 Dana N. Bardolph and Amber M. Vanderwarker, “Sociopolitics in Southeastern Archaeology: The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship,” Southeastern Archaeology 35, no. 3 (2016): 175–93; Hugh D. Radde, “Sexual Harassment among California Archaeologists: Results of the Gender Equity and Sexual Harassment Survey,” California Archaeology 10, no. 2 (December 2018): 231–55.

47 B. Heaton et al., “Survey of Dental Researchers’ Perceptions of Sexual Harassment at AADR Conferences: 2015 to 2018,” Journal of Dental Research 99, no. 5 (May 2020): 488–97.

48 Andrea L. Popp et al., “A Global Survey on the Perceptions and Impacts of Gender Inequality in the Earth and Space Sciences,” Earth and Space Science 6, no. 8 (August 2019): 1460–68.

49 Jennifer Dengate et al., “Selective Incivility, Harassment, and Discrimination in Canadian Sciences & Engineering: A Sociological Approach,” International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology 11, no. 2 (2019): 332–53.

50 Erin D. Reilly et al., “The Relationship among Stigma Consciousness, Perfectionism, and Mental Health in Engaging and Retaining STEM Women,” Journal of Career Development 46, no. 4 (August 2019): 440–54.

51 Gail Crimmins, “Don’t Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater: Statistics Can Create Impetus to Address Educational Inequity,” in Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy: Higher Education, Aspiration and Inequality, ed. Crimmins (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 3–26.

52 An independent samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference in feeling welcome between white scholars (3.11, most of the time) and scholars of color (2.56, some of the time), t(198) = 3.462, p = .001***.

53 Independent samples t-tests results for “clubby,” t(194) = −2.054, p < .05*; and “old boys’ club,” t(192) = −2.054, p < .05*.

54 Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs et al., Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2012); Kalwant Bhopal, “The Experiences of BME Academics in Higher Education: Aspirations in the Face of Inequality,” Leadership Foundation for Higher Education Stimulus Papers (July 2014): 1–24; Jason Arday, “Understanding Racism within the Academy: The Persistence of Racism within Higher Education,” in The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence, ed. Azeezat Johnson, Remi Joseph-Salisbury, and Beth Kamunge (London: Zed Books, 2018), 26–37; Nadena Doharty, Manuel Madriaga, and Remi Joseph-Salisbury, “The University Went to ‘Decolonise’ and All They Brought Back Was Lousy Diversity Double-Speak! Critical Race Counter-Stories from Faculty of Colour in ‘Decolonial’ Times,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 53, no. 3 (March 2021): 233–44.

55 A chi-square test of independence was performed, indicating that scholars of color were more likely to report such incidents, χ² (1, N = 205) = 5.338, p < .05.*

56 Zimmerman, Carter-Sowell, and Xu, “Examining Workplace Ostracism”; Janice Witt Smith and Toni Calasanti, “The Influences of Gender, Race and Ethnicity on Workplace Experiences of Institutional and Social Isolation: An Exploratory Study of University Faculty,” Sociological Spectrum 25, no. 3 (2005): 307–34; Cydney H. Dupree and C. Malik Boykin, “Racial Inequality in Academia: Systemic Origins, Modern Challenges, and Policy Recommendations,” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 8, no. 1 (March 2021): 11–18.

57 Derald Wing Sue et al., “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice,” American Psychologist 62, no. 4 (May–June 2007): 271.

58 Remi Joseph-Salisbury, “Institutionalised Whiteness, Racial Microaggressions and Black Bodies Out of Place in Higher Education,” Whiteness and Education 4, no. 1 (May 2019): 1–17; Azeezat Johnson and Remi Joseph-Salisbury, “‘Are You Supposed to Be in Here?’ Racial Microaggressions and Knowledge Production in Higher Education,” in Arday and Mirza, Dismantling Race in Higher Education, 143–60; Pat Mahony and Gaby Weiner, “‘Getting In, Getting On, Getting Out’: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff in UK Higher Education,” Race Ethnicity and Education 23, no. 6 (November 2020): 841–57.

59 Mark S. Giles and Robin L. Hughes, “CRiT Walking Race, Place, and Space in the Academy,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 22, no. 6 (2009): 687–96; Jason Arday, “No One Can See Me Cry: Understanding Mental Health Issues for Black and Minority Ethnic Staff in Higher Education,” Higher Education 83 (2022): 79–102; Chavella T. Pittman, “Racial Microaggressions: The Narratives of African American Faculty at a Predominantly White University,” Journal of Negro Education 81, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 82–92; Fay Cobb Payton, Lynette (Kvasny) Yarger, and Anthony Thomas Pinter, “(Text)Mining Microaggressions Literature: Implications Impacting Black Computing Faculty,” Journal of Negro Education 87, no. 3 (Summer 2018): 217–29; Nicola Rollock, “Unspoken Rules of Engagement: Navigating Racial Microaggressions in the Academic Terrain,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 25, no. 5 (2012): 517–32.

60 Independent samples t-tests results for policy workshops, t(74.211) = −2.090, p < .05*; academic skills workshops, t(82.134) = −2.887, p < .01**; and formal mentoring programs, t(200) = −2.249, p < .05*.

61 A chi-square test of independence was performed, indicating that scholars of color were more likely to say that mentoring is an important benefit, χ² (1, N = 193) = 11.355, p < .01**

62 Results from chi-square tests of independence are as follows: more opportunities for community of likeminded individuals, χ2 (1, N = 181) = 5.295, p < .05*; more opportunities for mentoring, χ2 (1, N = 174) = 6.390, p < .05*; and more opportunities to present research, χ2 (1, N = 185) = 6.770, p < .01**.

63 Settles, Buchanan, and Dotson, “Scrutinized but Not Recognized”; Robbie Shilliam, “Black Academia: The Doors Have Been Opened but the Architecture Remains the Same,” in Aiming Higher: Race, Inequality and Diversity in the Academy, ed. Claire Alexander and Jason Arday (London: Runnymede Trust, 2015); Kalwant Bhopal, The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics: A Comparative Study of the Unequal Academy (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2016).

64 Mann-Whitney tests indicated higher levels of agreement and interest among scholars of color than white scholars for whether diversity initiatives are needed: U = 2,148, p < .000***, r = .30; and interest in participating in such initiatives: U = 2,132, p < .000***, r = .27.

65 The largest difference between scholars of color and white scholars in theoretical approach was in the likelihood of selecting constructivism. However, this difference is not statistically significant; chi-square test of independence, χ² (1, N = 171) = 3.18, p = .075.

66 A chi-square test of independence indicated that scholars of color were no more likely to report a positivist orientation than white scholars, χ² (1, N = 165) = .222, p = .638.

67 For these two questions, the 2017 TRIP dataset included more than 2,300 respondents (varying slightly between questions). The TRIP data include scholars from across international relations, rather than only security studies; data for only security studies scholars were not available. TRIP team, email to Maria Rost Rublee, 7 May 2021. See also Daniel Maliniak et al., TRIP 2017 Faculty Survey, Teaching, Research, and International Policy Project (Williamsburg, VA: Global Research Institute, 2017), https://trip.wm.edu/.

68 Independent samples t-tests indicated no statistically significant difference in feeling welcome between scholars currently located in the Global North and scholars currently located in the Global South, t(231) = −1.280, p = .20, as well as between those who received their PhD at a Global North institution and those who received their PhD at a Global South institution, t(239) = .000, p = 1.0.

69 Fisher’s exact tests indicated there was not a significant association between likelihood of reporting incidents of harassment and discrimination, and whether one’s current institution was located in the Global North or South (two-tailed p = .770), as well as whether one’s PhD-granting institution was located in the Global North or South (two-tailed p = 1.000).

70 An independent samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference in to what extent respondents believed ISSS was diverse between scholars who received their PhD from a Global North institution (1.80, to a great extent) and scholars who received their PhD from a Global South institution (2.25, to some extent), t(226) = 2.566, p = .011*.

71 Megan Becker and Kelebogile Zvobgo, “Smoothing the Pipeline: A Strategy to Match Graduate Training with the Professional Demands of Professorship,” Journal of Political Science Education 16, no. 3 (2020): 357–68; Megan Becker, Benjamin A. T. Graham, and Kelebogile Zvobgo, “The Stewardship Model: An Inclusive Approach to Undergraduate Research,” PS: Political Science & Politics 54, no. 1 (January 2021): 158–62; Fernando Tormos-Aponte and Mayra Velez-Serrano, “Broadening the Pathway for Graduate Studies in Political Science,” PS: Political Science & Politics 53, no. 1 (January 2020): 145–46; Jessica Lavariega Monforti and Melissa R. Michelson, “Diagnosing the Leaky Pipeline: Continuing Barriers to the Retention of Latinas and Latinos in Political Science,” PS: Political Science & Politics 41, no. 1 (January 2008): 161–66.

72 Barry Buzan and Lene Hansen, The Evolution of International Security Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Keith Krause and Michael C. Williams, eds., Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (New York: Routledge, 2002).

73 Thalif Deen, “Staff Surveys Reveal Widespread Racism at the United Nations,” Inter Press Service, 21 August 2020, http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/08/staff-surveys-reveal-widespread-racism-united-nations/.

74 N Square, Greater Than: Nuclear Threat Professionals Reimagine Their Field (December 2019), https://nsquare.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/N-Square_Greater-Than_ExecSummary_Mar20.pdf.

75 Helene Cooper, “African-Americans Are Highly Visible in the Military, but Almost Invisible at the Top,” New York Times, 25 May 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/us/politics/military-minorities-leadership.html.

76 V. Spike Peterson, ed., Gendered States: Feminist (Re)visions of International Relations Theory (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1992).

77 Patricia A. Matthew, ed., Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016).

78 Diyi Li and Cory Koedel, “Representation and Salary Gaps by Race-Ethnicity and Gender at Selective Public Universities,” Educational Researcher 46, no. 7 (October 2017): 343–54.

79 Gloria Wong et al., “The What, the Why, and the How: A Review of Racial Microaggressions Research in Psychology,” Race and Social Problems 6, no. 2 (June 2014): 181–200.

80 US Government Accountability Office, State Department: Additional Steps Are Needed to Identify Potential Barriers to Diversity (Washington, DC: US Government Accountability Office, 2020), https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/704049.pdf.

81 White staff are also overrepresented in the US Congress. In the House of Representatives, staff are less diverse than congressional leadership. In 2018, around 40% of members had at least one nonwhite staffer in their office, while between 80%–90% of legislative directors and chiefs of staff were white. Members in the Congressional Black Caucus are most likely to hire nonwhite aides. See Bridget Bowman, “House Members Are More Diverse, but Does the Same Go for Staff?” Roll Call, 25 January 2019,

https://www.rollcall.com/2019/01/25/house-members-are-more-diverse-but-does-the-same-go-for-staff/.

82 US Government Accountability Office, State Department, 48.

83 African Union, “Statement of the Chairperson Following the Murder of George Floyd in the USA,” press release, 29 May 2020, https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20200529/statement-chairperson-following-murder-george-floyd-usa.

84 Zvobgo and Loken, “Why Race Matters.”

85 Derald Wing Sue, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010); Kathryn Young, Myron Anderson, and Saran Stewart, “Hierarchical Microaggressions in Higher Education,” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 8, no. 1 (2015): 61.

86 Doharty, Madriaga, and Joseph-Salisbury, “University Went to ‘Decolonise’”; Usree Bhattacharya, Lei Jiang, and Suresh Canagarajah, “Race, Representation, and Diversity in the American Association for Applied Linguistics,” Applied Linguistics 41, no. 6 (December 2020): 999–1004.

87 BISA, “Black Lives Matter–A BISA Statement on Recent Events,” 9 June 2020, https://www.bisa.ac.uk/news/black-lives-matter-bisa-statement-recent-events.

88 APSA, “Race, Capital & Empire Toolkit,” https://educate.apsanet.org/race-capital-empire-toolkit; Monkey Cage Topic Guides, Black Lives Matter, last modified 15 September 2022, https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSV9TLBppljTmIVGnkblCUrpkOVAFXLXKXJKPkHtl_SAYx61-7LAkBAnEu-Xo7AUslzmSLsGJ00idag/pub; Bhambra et al., “Why Is Mainstream International Relations Blind to Racism?”; Shilliam, “When Did Racism”; Zvobgo and Loken, “Why Race Matters.”

89 Alexander-Floyd, “Women of Color”; Beutel and Nelson, “Gender and Race-Ethnicity”; Monforti and Michelson, “Diagnosing the Leaky Pipeline”; Reid and Curry, “Are We There Yet?”; Sinclair-Chapman, “Leveraging Diversity.”

90 Social Sciences Feminist Network Research Interest Group, “The Burden of Invisible Work in Academia: Social Inequality and Time Use in Five University Departments,” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 39 (2017): 228–45.

91 Zvobgo and Loken, “Why Race Matters.”

92 Kelebogile Zvobgo, “Did America’s Racial Awakening Reach IR Professors?” Foreign Policy, 25 June 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/25/america-race-racial-justice-george-floyd-protests-international-relations-ir-professors-universities-teaching/.

93 Turner et al., “Call for Antiracist Action.”

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Kelebogile Zvobgo’s contribution to this article is made possible in part by fellowships from the University of Southern California (Provost Fellowship in the Social Sciences) and William & Mary (Global Research Institute Pre-doctoral Fellowship). In addition, material provided by Kelebogile Zvobgo is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE-1418060. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the above-listed funders.

Notes on contributors

Kelebogile Zvobgo

Kelebogile Zvobgo is an assistant professor of government at William & Mary, a faculty affiliate at the Global Research Institute, and the founder and director of the International Justice Lab.

Arturo C. Sotomayor

Arturo C. Sotomayor is an independent analyst and an affiliate faculty of the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute at George Washington University.

Maria Rost Rublee

Maria Rost Rublee is an associate professor of international relations at Monash University, chair of the International Security Studies Section Diversity Task Force, nonresident fellow with the Sea Power Centre, and a research affiliate at the Monash Gender, Peace & Security Centre and the Monash Better Governance and Policy Research Centre.

Meredith Loken

Meredith Loken is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam.

George Karavas

George Karavas is an independent researcher and research associate at Monash University.

Constance Duncombe

Constance Duncombe is an associate professor and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, and adjunct lecturer at Monash University. Authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order. All authors contributed equally to this article.