‘Theory should help us live … and give us tools to resist and rebuild’
A postdoctoral research fellow at Queen Mary University of London is “working to reshape” the field of international relations via the “vital and long-overlooked perspective” of trans theory.
Alexander Stoffel (pictured), also a lecturer in international politics whose research deals with “critical questions regarding the intersections of sexuality, race, and desire within capitalist expansion,” told The Mirage the goal is to “fundamentally rethink some of the field’s core assumptions” with “insights” from trans studies.
Stoffel and Ida Birkvad, an expert in postcolonial theory and gender and sexuality at the London School of Economics and Political Science, won the 2024 Queen Mary U. of London’s Interdisciplinary Team Award for their “distinctive and pioneering transfeminist research agenda.”
Described as “both critical and generative,” their efforts were directly influenced by “students’ desire for more feminist, trans and queer theory” in the realm of international relations.
“Students, in particular, have helped shape and energise the work. Their calls for more inclusive and critical teaching in global politics directly inspired much of the project’s public engagement and led to the creation of a new undergraduate module, Gender, Sexuality, and Capitalism, convened by Alexander at Queen Mary,” Stoffel said.
“We’ve had students tell us that our work has reshaped how they think about global politics. That’s perhaps the most rewarding feedback of all,” he added.
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Stoffel said one of his motivations is that “theory should help us live [and] should illuminate the conditions of our lives and give us tools to resist and rebuild.”
The fellow also noted his and Birkvad’s work “connects deeply” with Pride Month: “Pride is a celebration, but also a reminder of the ongoing struggles queer and trans communities face. Our work seeks to open new space within global politics for thinking about gender, freedom and solidarity.
“Pride, for me, is both celebration and commitment, a time to honour our histories while recommitting to the work of justice.”
Stoffel’s next project will be on the “global backlash” against transgender individuals, which he describes as a “symptom of deeper crises in global capitalism.”
Stoffel and Birkvad also produced the three-section article “Abstractions in International Relations: on the mystification of trans, queer, and subaltern life in critical knowledge production” for the European Journal of International Relations.
According to the paper’s abstract, the first section seeks “to understand the origins and logics of this self-mystifying process” via Karl Marx’s “methodological writings on abstraction” … and “contributes to the formalization of his methodology for contemporary IR scholarship by drawing a distinction between the fetishization of abstraction and the concretization of abstraction.”
Stoffel’s own book “Eros and Empire: The Transnational Struggle for Sexual Freedom in the United States” “recasts the history of radical queer thought and action as a project of erotic worldmaking,” according to its description.
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IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Alexander Stoffel/Queen Mary University of London