The Duck of Minerva

Megan MacKenzie

Megan MacKenzie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her main research interests include feminist international relations, gender and the military, the combat exclusion for women, the aftermaths of war and post-conflict resolution, and transitional justice. Her book Beyond the Band of Brothers: the US Military and the Myth that Women Can't Fight comes out with Cambridge University Press in July 2015. https://www.cambridge.org/ee/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/beyond-band-brothers-us-military-and-myth-women-cant-fight?format=PB

Recent Posts

Duck Retirement: what 7 years of blogging has given me

by Megan MacKenzie | 14 December, 2016 |

It's time. I'm signing off as permanent member of the Duck of Minerva after seven (7!?!) years of blogging. The experience has helped shape me as a professional, writer, and member of the IR and online communities. I began blogging during my first nervous year as an academic and continued through to the current realisation that I'm now a *youthful* mid-career scholar. My posts have covered a very wide range of topics, including ebola, Anthony Weiner's first set of dick picks, women and combat in the US military, and the parallels between police and military racism and brutal tactics. I'm...

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I Broke Up With Michel Foucault*

by Megan MacKenzie | 6 September, 2016 |

I broke up with Michel Foucault. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I sort of ghosted him. Let me explain. When I was in grad school I fell in love with Foucault. He was just exactly what I was looking for- he made me see gender differently, and he helped me to finally piece together what I thought I was trying to say in my thesis. It was magical. He just really 'got me.' You know? But then things changed. I was introduced to theorists like Judith Butler, bell hooks, Aimee Cesaire, and Frantz Fanon and I started to realise I just couldn't be exclusive with Foucault anymore. He pretended...

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Jolie-Pitt, Trump and Bono Walk Into a LSE Classroom: why dedication and commitment isn’t expertise

by Megan MacKenzie | 27 May, 2016 |

Oh man, I really didn't want to write about Angelina Jolie Pitt  (AJP) and her damn LSE appointment. When I heard the news it just made me feel tired. But there has been an interesting/frustrating  debate emerging and I just can't keep my yap shut- even on maternity leave. In his post on the topic, Dan Drezner asks us to all calm the F down; he assures us that policy schools have always been opportunistic and brought in pretty unqualified but interesting folks to teach (well, he sort of says that). The Aidnography post, Why you should be critical of Professor Angelina Jolie Pitt's LSE gig...

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Words Mean Things: The Beginnings of De-Gendering Democratic Citizenship

by Megan MacKenzie | 7 January, 2016 |

This is a guest post by Kyleanne Hunter, PhD Student and Research Fellow at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver Yesterday it was discovered that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has ordered the Marine Corps to both integrate their enlisted training and to create gender-neutral job titles.  This news comes on the heels of a passionate battle of words surrounding the integration of women into all Military Occupational Specialties (MOS).  This latest victory for those who recognize the value of women’s service is not limited to those in the service.  It is a...

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Men’s Unexpected Erections are a Liability on the Battlefield (and other ways men’s bodies put female soldiers at risk)

by Megan MacKenzie | 15 December, 2015 |

In the follow up to Defense Secretary Ash Carter's  recent announcement that all combat jobs will be open to women, there have been several articles highlighting men's fears about working with women on the frontline. In particular, a survey of Special Operations men found that the majority would prefer not to work with women, and that some held serious "fears" and "concerns"- especially in relation to women's apparently unpredictable bodies. That's right, the Special Forces-  the tip of the spear, the elite of the US military- are scared about the three P's: periods, pregnancy and PMS. Most...

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What Canada’s New ‘Pretty Boy’ Prime Minister Can Teach Us About Hegemonic Masculinity

by Megan MacKenzie | 22 October, 2015 |

Like most Canadian citizens, I was delighted to see the back end of our former Prime Minister Harper as he conceded defeat to the Liberal Party's Justin Trudeau. Although I've felt slightly disconnected watching both the campaign and the reaction to Trudeau's win from my home in Sydney, Australia, I've been fascinated by what arguably became one of the main campaign foci: Trudeau's hair.  'Hair' clearly stood in for much larger hang ups about Trudeau's appearance, masculinity, sexuality, and life choices. Both the gleeful memes celebrating Canada's 'hot' new Prime Minister (the National Post...

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Torture as Evidence-Based Policy Making? Race, War and Science

Torture as Evidence-Based Policy Making? Race, War and Science

by Megan MacKenzie | 7 October, 2015 | ,

This is a guest post by Alison Howell, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers Newark With the recent APA decision to prohibit their members from participating in enhanced interrogation, and the demise of the human terrain program earlier this year, the optimistic amongst us might be tempted to believe that the academy is once again purified of its collusions with torture and occupation. The work to be done going forward, however, is not just one of holding individuals to account or raising the bar of individual ethical standards. We also need to find ways of holding...

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Guts, God and Mystery: how the women and combat debate is all about emotion

by Megan MacKenzie | 11 September, 2015 |

War on the Rocks published an exceptionally written piece by Lieutenant General (ret.) Gregory Newbold called “What Tempers the Steel of an Infantry Unit” that has gone viral. Here, Newbold eloquently draws out an argument that has tended to only be implied- or lurking behind much of the debate on women in combat for decades. The argument is simple: infantry units require a special, indescribable bond and dynamic that women spoil. Certainly this argument is not unique, but the beauty of Newbold’s piece that he boldly puts the emotional arguments- rather than physical ones- front and center....

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Image Voyeurism, Trauma Porn, and ‘Doing Something’…for Yourself

by Megan MacKenzie | 3 September, 2015 |

* Please note: I absolutely oppose publishing the image of Aylan Kardi on this website* Since my name is mentioned- and our short twitter exchange highlighted in Annick's previous post as potentially the inspiration point for her piece- I feel I need say something. First, I'll acknowledge that the image we are debating hit me somewhere deep because the boy is the same size and age as my son. Those points of connection made me look at the image differently and that difference in how I saw the image made me feel embarrassed, upset, and unsure what it meant about how I saw the whole 'package'...

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Understanding the Emotional Impacts of Ebola: moving beyond crisis and stats to stories

by Megan MacKenzie | 2 August, 2015 |

This is a guest post by Dehunge Shiaka, researcher and gender expert in Freetown Sierra Leone What are the emotional and psycho-social impacts of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa? With much of the media attention on the medical, international, and civil-military response to Ebola, this is a question that has largely been unaddressed. Yet it is inevitable that a virus that ravaged communities, halted economies, and killed thousands in a region would have multiple and lasting emotional impacts. Taking account of people’s extreme social and emotional reactions in emergency settings is vital to...

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