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

The Freedom to Speak Up As Academics: The Right to Make An “Ass” of Myself Personally

by Amanda Murdie | 19 April, 2015 |

On Thursday, I became part of a growing group of academics that has had a letter like this written about them: As a parent, I’ve been doing some advocacy about my children’s school this year.  The advocacy received some local media attention recently when my children’s District Administration tried to defend an activity that violated federal privacy rights. Luckily, I’m in a department where, instead of encouraging me to be silent, senior faculty advised me to frame the letter and include it in my annual evaluation under “service.”   I love my university and I love the fact that I’m still...

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Skype Academic Interviews – What (Not) to Do

by Amanda Murdie | 19 March, 2015 |

Hi all!  File this post under "unsolicited advice from a newbie DGS."  Here are my tips on how to not crash-and-burn on a Skype interview: Take a professional picture and make sure your Skype handle is professional – this might be the perfect time to set up an alternative, work-related Skype account. DON’T have a mood listed. No one wants to see that you love pirates or pigs or whatever at this stage. Be on early and make sure Skype is set up as online. Dress professionally – get your dog, bike, etc out from behind you – you can take a sample picture right from Skype so you can see what they...

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Working in 25 Minute Stretches

by Amanda Murdie | 11 February, 2015 |

Greetings, Ducks!  Thanks to Josh for such a wonderful facelift of the Duck website! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans next week. This is been a very service-intensive year for me – first year post tenure – and I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my time.  Unlike common "wisdom," my colleagues and I in academia work an incredible amount of hours.  And, yet, we never actually feel caught up. In an effort to work smarter, I’ve been looking into different time management techniques and tips.  Most of the tips you can find in the literature or from self-help gurus...

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Science of Santa

by Amanda Murdie | 17 December, 2014 |

The following is a guest post by Tenacity Murdie, age 12.   Dear Readers, Every year on Christmas Eve, Santa, a fat and happy man, takes off in a sleigh full of presents to go deliver gifts to the good boys and girls. We spend millions of dollars in preparation for Santa, but is this reasonable, or are we just throwing our money down the drain? Although many think that it is possible for Santa to travel the world in less than 31 hours (not 24 since we have time zones)[2] and successfully deliver presents to millions of children without violating any laws of physics, it’s just not possible....

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The Perils of a M/W/F Class

by Amanda Murdie | 5 December, 2014 |

Greetings, fellow Duck readers.  I realize I've been MIA this semester - DGS duties and ISA-Midwest stuff took too much of my non-research time.  Another factor in my absence, however: a Monday Wednesday Friday schedule. And, it sucked.[1]  Like large-tornado-near-my-hometown sucked.  Today marks the last Friday class of the semester – thank god.[2]  Even though I should be getting back to research this morning, I wanted to write a little bit about why I think 50 minute/3 day a week classes should be banned in our discipline. Let’s take a lesson from the educators: longer class periods that...

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A Strategy of Appeasement: Winning the Revise and Resubmit

by Amanda Murdie | 2 October, 2014 |

You hear the “ping” of an incoming email and quickly check the subject – oh, crap, it’s from a journal![1]  This could make or break your day.  You open the  email and quickly scan for the word “reject.”  Wait? What!? No “reject”?  No “Unfortunately, their assessments do not provide us with sufficient support to continue the review process”?  Does this mean what you think it means?  You now read the letter closely, your pulse starting to rise.  It is!  A revise and resubmit! I remember when I started sending things out for review – I didn’t actually realize that the goal of a first round...

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The First Year on the Tenure-Track: Wanting to Give the White Whale Back

by Amanda Murdie | 10 September, 2014 |

As a grad student, I used to the think longingly about the day when I would finally hold a tenure-track job.  I could almost taste the thrill of the teaching and the joy of faculty resources.  You mean, someone will pay for my copy of [insert software you’d like to use legally]?  And, textbooks will be free? I also fantasized about how wonderful it would be to not be under the thumb of my advisors.  Of course, I thought I could live like a queen on a faculty salary, too.  The tenure-track position was my white whale. Three months into the job, however, I wanted to give my white whale back. ...

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Human Rights Research and Researchers in IR: Are We REALLY that Odd?

by Amanda Murdie | 5 September, 2014 |

Before APSA last week, I had the privilege of attending a small conference put on the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Project at William and Mary.  The conference was a chance for researchers in different research areas to write about the policy-relevance of their issue area and compare research and researchers in their area to the larger IR community.  It relates to the discussion going on the last couple of weeks on ISQ's blog.  All of the participants had the opportunity to use the TRIP project data on journal articles in top-IR journals and survey data from IR...

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The Academic Arrogant Self-Important Snooty Quiz

by Amanda Murdie | 2 September, 2014 |

As I was traveling back from APSA on Sunday, I completed all of the journal reviews that I had on my desk, ran some regressions for new projects, and then completed all the revisions my coauthors are requesting from me currently.[1]  With the remaining few hours I had on the flight, I noticed a Cosmo magazine[2] in the seat-pocket next to me and quickly went to work finding out what kind of female I am and how much I really know about Beyonce.  The quizzes got me thinking: we don’t have a lot of personality quizzes for us as academics but – based on my participant observations at this past...

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Non-Academic Job Searches in DC – What to Know

by Amanda Murdie | 14 July, 2014 |

Many graduate students are expanding their job searches outside the academy.  As an advisor, I'm horribly underprepared at offering job advice outside of the academic job market – besides work you can get off of Craigslist, I've never held a real job.  Recently, I had a student come to me with questions about finding a job in the DC policy world.  I asked my great friend (and former student) Kate Kidder for her thoughts, which she agreed to allow me to post at the Duck. For academic jobs, I really like Michael Flynn's thoughts at The Quantitative Peace. Kate's Advice: Preface Right off the...

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