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

An Open Letter from the New DGS

by Amanda Murdie | 2 July, 2014 |

Greetings, PhD Class of 2019.  Welcome.   We are excited for your arrival on campus later this summer.  As you enjoy your summer, I thought I’d take this opportunity to write you with some advice for your next adventure.  My comments are just based on my personal experiences but I thought maybe they would be of use to you as you start your PhD. My first set of comments all revolve around one basic point: this isn’t an extension of undergrad.  The early course work you do in preparation for your PhD should be thought of as something completely different from your past experiences.  Even...

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ISA – Midwest: Please consider submitting to this conference!

by Amanda Murdie | 30 June, 2014 |

Please consider putting in a round-table, paper, or panel submission for the 2014 International Studies Association -Midwest Conference, to be held November 7th through the 9th at the Hilton-Ballpark in St. Louis.  The deadline for proposals is July 1st. In my opinion, ISA-Midwest is the most productive and friendliest conference I attend all year.  Unlike other conferences, ISA-Midwest has a plethora of formal and informal opportunities to talk to some of the best scholars in the field and hear their advice both on scholarly work and on professional development.  I am encouraging all my...

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What do we want? Labor Day! When do we want it? Soon!

by Amanda Murdie | 19 June, 2014 |

I'm sure most of you have seen this nice Change.Org petition concerning the dates of the annual APSA meeting.  I really like all the reasons given for changing the date of the meeting and am glad we are having this discussion. Any thoughts, Duck readers?  Is it worth changing the dates of the meeting?  If so, when would you recommend?

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An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week: Negotiation

by Amanda Murdie | 13 June, 2014 |

Sorry, faithful Duck readers, for the radio silence – I’ve been traveling for much of the last month and then – ugh – just started teaching a daily undergrad class.  I promise – real blog posts are coming!  In the meantime, I wanted to fill you in on some information I’ve been digesting in the last month.  The information should be enough for all of us to “rant” about. A few weeks ago, I was at the Vision in Methodology conference – a wonderful conference for women in political science that are interested in all aspects of political methodology.  One of the sessions was on implicit bias – a...

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Dear Kansas Board of Regents, Part Deux

by Amanda Murdie | 15 May, 2014 |

Dear Kansas Board of Regents, Greetings.  I don’t know if you received my first open-letter to you in December.  My parents have pretty slow Internet in central Kansas so maybe the page is still loading.  Hopefully, you’ll read the letter once you get it. In December, I wrote about your proposed social media policy and how it really would scare me if I was still faculty at Kansas State University or any of your other Kansas institutions.  Of course, I know not to post things that would go against existing federal laws (FERPA) and know not to incite violence in my social media posts. ...

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An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week: Personal Information and Office Hours

by Amanda Murdie | 6 May, 2014 |

It’s that time of year again: the magical time when my 10 page undergraduate research proposal deadline is enough to cause a health scare among the geriatric population of mid-Missouri.  As the semester comes to a close, my office is typically filled with both undergrads and grads coming to tell me a plethora of problems and stories.  Many times, these problems preface a request for an extension of some sort.  Can I please have an extra week? An extra day? An extra 20 minutes? Some of the problems that appear at my office door are to be expected: a replication file can’t be found, an...

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National Day of Prayer, Political Science Edition 2014

by Amanda Murdie | 30 April, 2014 |

It’s almost that time again: National Day of Prayer is tomorrow.  It’s a day for us to come together and pray for those who need praying for.[1]  Like last year, I have some political science related prayer requests: Fixed effects and people who ask for them to be included in revisions.[2] Campus parking, any institution at any time. People who don’t read footnotes.[3] The student who thought I’d find it funny if “science” was in quotations every time s/he wrote “political science” in his/her essay. University professors in other disciplines that obviously don’t see any value in the social...

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Call for Proposals: ISA Midwest 2014

by Amanda Murdie | 17 April, 2014 |

Dear all, I'm currently the program chair for ISA Midwest 2014.  The conference will take place from November 7th to 9th at the Hilton Ballpark in St. Louis.  This is a fabulous conference - one I'd really recommend for all scholars but one that is especially inviting for junior scholars.  Here is the call for proposals: https://www.isanet.org/Conferences/MidwestStLouis2014/Call.aspx Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about the conference.  I look forward to seeing you in St. Louis! Best, Amanda  

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An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week: Self-Promotion

by Amanda Murdie | 14 April, 2014 |

This week’s installment of An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week concerns self-promotion and self-citation differences between men and women. The idea for this installment came to me while I was having a celebratory drink with K. Chad Clay and Jim Piazza at ISA.  We were celebrating our recent Political Research Quarterly article (also coauthored with Sam Bell).[1]  Chad had just presented a new Bell, Clay, Murdie paper[2] at a panel that I wasn’t able to attend.  When I asked Chad if he had any questions from the floor, Chad said that he did get some questions but that he was able to answer...

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An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week: Professor vs. Teacher and Dr. vs. Mrs.

by Amanda Murdie | 9 April, 2014 |

Like any good protestant preacher, I’ve decided to start a multi-week series where we can examine a topic in depth from multiple angles.[1]  My chosen topic: women in academia.  This is a topic that has been written on extensively in peer-reviewed articles and on the blogosphere (see The Monkey Cage's wonderful discussion for a recent summary).  However, to my knowledge, most of those writing on the topic have been senior: the perspective of a woman “in the trenches” (ie junior) has been somewhat missing in the discussion.  I want to add my two-cents to the discussion and I’ve purposely...

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