LGBT+ figures you should know: Cynthia Weber and V Spike Peterson

Cynthia Weber

Despite mixed reception of her work initially, Cynthia Weber has pushed for a conversation between International Relations and Transnational / Global Queer Studies by asking the all-important question “Why hasn’t International Relations gone queer?”

Cynthia Weber is widely regarded as one of the most prominent scholars on Queer International Relations. Although there is no agreed definition of Queer IR, generally it explores how societal perceptions of what is normal and not normal relating to sex, gender and sexuality, “sustain and contest international formations of power”.

Currently holding a professorship in International Relations at Sussex University in the UK, Weber has made numerous contributions to Queer International Relations. Her book Queer International Relations: Sovereignty, Sexuality, and the Will to Knowledge (2016) is one of the most in-depth analyses of the role of sexualities in statecraft and national sovereignty. She discusses the role of ‘the homosexual’ in nations, disrupting binary understandings in the way states are organised and forcing us to ask what role heterosexuality plays in hierarchies of power.

Sexuality is an often-forgotten factor in classic International Relations studies. Weber calls us to re-examine IR ‘myths’ that are broadly accepted without challenging them, such as “sovereignty, power, security, and nationalism”.

Weber has taken many risks in her career in her quest to carve out a space for queer IR theory. One of her most well-known works and by far her most controversial is book Faking It: U.S. Hegemony in a "post-phallic" Era (1999). This book analyses heteromasculinity in US relations with Cuba and the Caribbean, making bold claims on the ‘phallic’ nature of American attitudes towards Cuba. She discussed the mixed reception she received from the book, including how it lost her credibility as an IR scholar, in her article “What is told is always in the telling’: reflections on 'Faking it' in 21st century IR/global politics” (2016):

She stated that it took her years and several unrelated projects to be “taken seriously again”. She reflects on being snubbed by the intellectual community, leading her to reevaluate and reframe the marriage between queer theory and IR.

Today, Cynthia Weber can take responsibility for much of the development and overall acceptance of queer scholarship in the field of IR. She was consistently outspoken of the importance of queer analyses during a period of time where it was considered irrelevant to mainstream IR, and helped carve a space for the discipline.

V Spike Peterson

If you have engaged with feminist and queer theory in the realm of War Studies, odds are that you have seen V Spike Peterson’s work. She is an institutionally respected academic with a reputation in intersectional feminist and queer theory that precedes her. Whilst Peterson’s research spans multiple disciplines and theoretical frameworks, she is most recognised for her work on inequalities, sexuality, and identities.

She is well known for her research on the construction of binaries in reinforcing societal hierarchies, as is well demonstrated in Sex Matters: A Queer History of Hierarchies (2014). In it she explores ancient Greek hierarchies of differences and how they have influenced modern European constructions of binaries. Binaries are everywhere we look in life – male/female, heterosexual/homosexual, ruler/ruled… She asks how these have impacted power relations throughout history.

Peterson has won numerous awards for her work such as Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions of International Relations Theory (1992) and Global Gender Issues in the New Millennium (2010), including receiving the LGBTQIA Scholar Award from the LGBTQA Caucus of the International Studies Association.

Peterson’s earlier work went above and beyond the existing theories of the time, incorporating a level of nuance to traditional IR debate that is profound. Whilst much of the feminist literature of the time mostly concerned the idea of sexualities, Peterson explicitly references gender identity. In her 1992 article “Political Identities/Nationalism as Heterosexism”, she labels gender identity as constructions that must be “continuously re-created and demonstrated”, being one of the first to introduce the importance of these ideas into the realm of international studies.

Within her work, the ‘Triad Analysis’ is a concept she frequents, which she describes as the interactions between who we are, how we think, and the actions we take, including how our personal identities influence our actions and reactions to our studies?

Her combination of anthropology, political economy, poststructuralism, social-, postcolonial-, feminist-, and queer theory allow her to provide a truly unique and refined perspective. In her biography, she encourages everyone to ask themselves “whose interests and values are served, and how, by status quo analytical frameworks and policy priorities?”. V Spike Peterson is not only an academic with a long list of credentials but an important thinker in the realm of international studies. Her intersectional approach to LGBTQ+ issues has created some of the most significant research in the field.