University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 2020 Performing IR Charles Darwin LuLevitt University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation LuLevitt, Charles Darwin, "Performing IR" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1802. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1802 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Performing IR A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences University of Denver In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Charles Darwin LuLevitt August 2020 Adviser: Dr. Bernadette Calafell, Ph.D. ©Copyright by Charles LuLevitt 2020 All Rights Reserved Author: Charles LuLevitt Title: Performing IR Advisor: Dr. Bernadette Calafell, Ph.D. Degree Date: August 2020 ABSTRACT This research is an attempt to create a new way of understanding international relations, which is defined here as knowledge and practice that informs us of the nature, goals, and actors of international politics. At the core of the research is a simple concern, but one I am still rather unsure I have thought of enough: what does it mean to create a different discourse? The argument made is that international relations as we know it, is a discourse centered on state, sovereignty, and anarchy, and also white, hegemonic masculine culture, which forces us to maintain that culture’s social dominance. Unfortunately, this cultural knowledge leads to a world of fear, wars, and deaths. The dissertation instead proposes that we instead work toward creating new international relations theories centered on our own personal experiences and on critical cultural theories. Accomplishing this requires us to reject the epistemology, genealogy, and theories of international relations. By doing this, we may be able to imagine a different international relations–open to diversity, accepting of differences, compassionate for marginalized and oppressed people. Imagining a new international relations theory relies on the methodology of written performative autoethnography to draw on the researcher’s personal experiences. The dissertation makes a connection between the researcher’s identity as an Asian American male, international relations, and white, hegemonic masculinity. Through this ii connection, the researcher shows that by rethinking his identity performance, it is possible to subvert and reject international relations as we know it, and white, hegemonic masculinity, and create a new way to think about how we should relate to our world. The dissertation concludes that we can create our own theories of international relations by interrogating our own identity performances. When we are able to reimagine what our own identity means and to form new connections to marginalized individuals and communities, then we can create new knowledge about our world that creates potentially new international relations. Simply put: if we want to know our world differently, we need to transform our identity into something more ethical, more compassionate, more accepting of difference. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. Bernadette Calafell Dr. Bernadette Calafell was an exceptional chair, mentor, and teacher. She guided my research through coursework, feedback, and took me under her wings to help me get published. Dr. Calafell’s teachings and inspiration taught me more than I knew possible and gave me something important to talk about. Dr. Calafell recognized my non- traditional habits and gave unending academic patience and support. Dr. Christina Foust Dr. Christina Foust was a pillar. I would not have completed this project without her determination, her progress checks, and her moral support. At the end, Dr. Foust carried me to the finish line, completing forms and administrative works for me. When I was overwhelmed, she gave me the needed helping hand. Dr. Chandrashekar Dr. Santhosh Chandrashekar graciously came onboard and joined my committee at the very last minute, giving me valuable feedback, critiques, and future direction. Shirley Levitt My mother, Shirley Levitt, was incredibly kind and supportive, helping me tremendously in my most difficult moments in the dissertation process. When I was mentally, physically, and financially broke, she kept me going. For a woman who came to this country without any English or skills, with only the clothes in our suitcases, to have a son complete a Ph.D. is the culmination of a life time of hard labor and sacrifices, for which I am eternally grateful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Seeing the Borders of IR ..………….……….……………………………..1 1.1. IR is Borders ..……….……………………………………….…..…………4 1.2. IR is Cultural ..…………………….…………….........................…………16 1.3. IR is a Textual Place………………………………...…….………….……24 1.4. Reimagining IR……..……………….……………………………….…….35 1.5. Goodbye Father………………….……………...……...……….…….……42 Chapter Two: Robert McNamara and Me ..………………………..…………..…….….45 2.1. Rational Theory and Robert McNamara ..….…….…………….……...…..48 2.2. Social Constructivism ..………………….…………………..……...……..57 2.3. Discursive Theory of IR ..…………..…………….….…………...………..61 2.4. Feminist Theories of IR ..………………...……………..………..……......65 2.5. Postcolonial IR ……...………………………………….………………….68 2.6. Conclusion: IR is About the U.S ……………….…………...…………….70 Chapter Three: IR with a Critical Cultural Center ..……………………….…………….73 3.1. Decolonial IR ………………………………………..………...…..………74 3.2. Intersectionality is in my Pain ………………………………..……….…...77 3.3. IR is in my Flesh ………………………………………..….….…………..81 3.4. Queering IR ………………………………………….…….………………84 3.5. I am a Monster …………………………………………………………….88 3.6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...90 Chapter Four: Writing, Acting, Performing IR ………………………………….………92 4.1. Performance Ethnography …………………………...…….…………..….92 4.2. IR is Cultural ………………………………………………………………94 4.3. Performance Writing ……………………………………………………..100 4.4. Ethical Performances ……………………………………….……………103 4.5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….106 Chapter Five: Dear Student Letter ……………………………..…………….………...107 5.1. Prologue: I Wear Textualism …………………………………………….109 5.2. Act I: Intro to IR and Rational Choice ……………………………..…….112 5.3. Act II: Dear Student: Resistance if Futile …………………………..……116 5.4. Act III: Dear Student: What is I without R? ……………………………..122 5.5. Act IV: Dear Student: IR is a Museum ………………………………..…124 5.6. Epilogue ………………………………………………………………..…………...128 Chapter Six: Producing Homo Sacer …………………………………………………..133 v 6.1. Sovereignty is Camps ……………………………………………………134 6.2. Act I: Hello Class! ……………………………………….………………137 6.3. Act II: Banana is a Monster ……………………………………………...140 6.4. Act III: I am Never Neo ...…………………………….………………….145 6.5. Act IV: Hello Afong Moy………………………………………………...149 6.6. Epilogue ………………………………………………………………….154 Chapter 7: Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….159 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...164 vi CHAPTER 1: SEEING THE BORDERS OF IR International Relations (IR) is not meant for the ordinary likes of you and me. If you are poor, lost, a person of color, or a trans-gender person1, or hungry and scared, just barely getting by one day at a time, then IR was never meant for you. IR is for rich, powerful, intellectual people, for the presidents, ministers, senators, kings, and world leaders, for generals, colonels, and warlords, for diplomats, and for academics. Too often it is a chess game: pawns of soldiers, knights of tanks, bishops of planes, rooks of ships, queens of missiles, kings of nukes. Plane to missiles seven, checkmate. Paid for with the lives of those whom IR was never meant for. This dissertation is an attempt to challenge that way of knowing our world. Instead of a game played by a few, paid for by millions, IR shall be our stories—the stories of all people on earth. It is stories of how we struggle, how we build lives, and how we sacrifice for those we love. It is stories of care and compassion. Too often, IR is an academic sitting in his office, dreaming of abstract concepts dueling with abstract concepts. It shall not be presidents huddled in bunkers with their cabinets planning the next strike while watching approval ratings. It shall not a white scholar in the U.S. who wants to study Arabs, as if any human being can be studied like an animal (I only say Arabs here because this actually happened). No, IR is for you and me to show our 1 I adopt Johnson’s use of trans- to represent non-heteronormative gendering (P. 137) 1 agency. IR is to hear other people’s stories and to communicate dialogically with them (Alcoff; Conquergood). By showing how IR is for us, by engaging it with my own personal experiences, to act it out and feel it with my own body, I hope that this dissertation will encourage readers to consider the ways IR is also for you, and how you can engage it with your experiences and your bodies. A lot of times, scholars write popular academic works for mass consumption, but not really seriously asking readers to consider how their lives can produce social change. Maybe this will be the opposite: a non-popular, more serious academic work that will be mass consumed. I would like for you to think about how your lives can create new knowledges