The Duck of Minerva

Amanda Murdie

Amanda Murdie is Professor & Dean Rusk Scholar of International Relations in the Department of International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Help or Harm: The Human Security Effects of International NGOs (Stanford, 2014). Her main research interests include non-state actors, and human rights and human security. When not blogging, Amanda enjoys hanging out with her two pre-teen daughters (as long as she can keep them away from their cell phones) and her fabulous significant other.

Recent Posts

Excluding Women from the Band of Brothers: the False Flag of Small Unit Cohesion

by Amanda Murdie | 12 September, 2015 |

The following is a guest post by Kirstin J.H. Brathwaite, Postdoctoral Fellow at James Madison College, Michigan State University. The graduation of two women from Army Ranger school last month along with the apparent intention of the Marine Corps to request an exemption to the Department of Defense’s plan to lift the combat exclusion policy has led to an outpouring of opinion pieces regarding the advisability of allowing women to participate in combat operations. Some argue that Capt. Greist and Lt. Haver’s success in one of the most demanding military training courses in the world proves...

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Gearing Up for the Academic Job Market: Getting Your Packet Together

by Amanda Murdie | 28 August, 2015 |

It’s the last weekend in August, which means at least 1 of 2 things are happening: APSA drinking ABDs hurriedly working on their job market materials. Since (a) is still a week away, I thought I’d take a second to offer some unsolicited advice on (b): job market materials. By job market materials, I’m referring to the CV, cover letter, writing sample, teaching portfolio, research statement, transcripts, and letters of recommendation that will make up the totality of what any academic hiring committee will know about you and your work.  It’s basically your academic life, condensed into...

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New Evidence on Gender Bias in IR Syllabi

by Amanda Murdie | 27 August, 2015 | ,

The following is a guest post by Jeff Colgan, Richard Holbrooke Assistant Professor at Brown University, and is @JeffDColgan on Twitter. It’s that time of year again, when professors are designing syllabi as fast as they can with deliberation and care. Recently I analyzed IR syllabi for PhD students. The data suggest a gender bias that instructors could easily correct. The case that gender diversity is good for IR and political science has been made elsewhere, repeatedly and persuasively. According to APSA, women are 42 percent of graduate students in political science (in the US), but only...

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Google Scholar Metrics and Scholarly Productivity in International Relations

by Amanda Murdie | 6 August, 2015 |

The following is a guest post by Cullen Hendrix of the University of Denver.   If you’ve read or seen Moneyball, the following anecdote will be familiar to you: Baseball is a complex sport requiring a diverse, often hard-to-quantify[1] skillset. Before the 2000s, baseball talent scouts relied heavily on a variety of heuristics marked by varying degrees of sanity: whether the player had a toned physique, whether the player had an attractive girlfriend, and whether or not the player seemed arrogant (this was seen as a good thing). Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics changed things with a...

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Gearing Yourself Up For the Academic Job Market: Before You Go on the Market

by Amanda Murdie | 5 August, 2015 |

In our last installment, I indicated that this edition of Gearing Yourself Up would include a discussion of how to put together your job market packet.  I think I jumped-the-gun a bit, however.  Before putting together your packet, before trying to log on to APSA and navigate eJobs, before telling your family/friends that you are looking for jobs in academia[1], you need to do one crucial thing: You need to have a heart-to-heart with your advisor(s).  This might seem self-evident.  However, I don’t think everyone gets this memo.  I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who apply for...

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Confidence and Gender in International Relations

by Amanda Murdie | 4 August, 2015 | ,

The following is a guest post by Rachel Merriman-Goldring, Susan Nelson, Hannah S. Petrie at William and Mary's Institute for the Theory & Practice of International Relations. For decades, survey research has suggested that women lack confidence in their answers, responding ‘don’t know’ or ‘maybe’ at significantly higher rates than their male counterparts. Initially, this trend on political surveys was attributed to topic-specific political knowledge gaps between men and women.   However, recent research, including a study on the confidence gap between male and female economists,...

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Gearing Yourself Up For the Academic Job Market: Waiting

by Amanda Murdie | 21 July, 2015 |

It’s getting to be that time of year again – the time when a fresh not-so-fresh crop of ABDs/PhDs gear-up for the academic job market.  I’ve been there – it can make even the most self-assured academic have an existential crisis.[1] As much as I hated being on the job market myself, I absolutely love looking up and providing job market advice for students at Mizzou. I think I received especially good advice when I was a grad student and I think the advice I received has been causally related to my present situation (which I love).  I’d like to “pay it forward.” On my first day as DGS, I...

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Organizing Collaborative Research Projects: Where Do I Begin?

by Amanda Murdie | 1 July, 2015 |

The following is a guest post by Andrew Yeo at Catholic University of America. Collaborating with friends, colleagues, and other scholars is a great motivator for research. But if you’re at a small research university with limited institutional resources, the hurdles to do collaborative research beyond co-authoring is higher. Small departments, limited budgets, the absence of relevant research centers/programs, and few ongoing sponsored research activities ultimately makes it harder for junior scholars to learn how to organize larger collaborative research projects.  If this sounds like your...

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Submit your proposal – ISA-Midwest 2015!

by Amanda Murdie | 29 June, 2015 | ,

After you have seen the fall foliage at ISS-ISAC, why not see beautiful St. Louis, MO in November?  ISA-Midwest - my FAVORITE conference - is November 19th - 22nd.  Deadline for submissions is July 1st.  This is a great conference for those interested in foreign policy or human rights themes.  It's also a very inviting conference for junior scholars with lots of professional development opportunities.  Hope to see you there - I'll join you for a drink at the amazing Three Sixty Bar.

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Much Ado About Nothing (Very Intellectually or Politically Important)?

by Amanda Murdie | 18 June, 2015 | ,

The following is a guest post by Jeffrey C. Isaac, the James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington.     What constitutes important political science research? This question has been much discussed lately in connection with “When Contact Changes Minds: An Experiment on Transmission of Support for Gay Equality,” an article by Michael J. LaCour and Donald P. Green published in Science magazine. The reason for the attention is straightforward: because the piece was apparently based on fraudulent data, the article has become a veritable scandal. In the...

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