Knowledge and expertise as a paradigm in international politics research: What we know, and where to next

Knowledge and expertise as a paradigm in international politics research: What we know, and where to next.

This workshop is based on a recently published, co-edited handbook Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025) and provides a forum for discussion of the state of the art and future of knowledge as a paradigm in studies of international politics.

The first part of this workshop, What we know, will be delivered in a hybrid format (in person and online) in collaboration with colleagues at Aberystwyth University.

Chapter author Professor Milja Kurki will talk about AI and imaginations of future.

Co-editors Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Aberystwyth University) and Kasia Kaczmarska (PIR, University of Edinburgh) will introduce the idea of knowledge and expertise as a new paradigm and give an overview of the contributions knowledge studies can make to the analysis of actors, practices, contexts, structures and relations in international politics.

In the second part of the workshop, Future research avenues, the in-person participants in each location (Edinburgh and Aberystwyth) will be invited to reflect on how knowledge and expertise feature in their research fields and what open questions and future research topics they can identify in this regard.

Speakers

Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, PhD, is Professor of International Politics and Director of the Knowledge Centre at Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics. Her research is interested, among others, in the role of knowledge and expertise in conflict contexts and in creative methods that bring experiential, practical and presentational knowledges into academic studies.

Professor Milja Kurki is Professor and EH Carr Chair in Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics. Her background is in philosophy of science and international relations theory and she currently works on a transdisciplinary project on multispecies politics and cosmological re-imagination in the context of planetary challenges.

Dr Kasia Kaczmarska is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the School of Social and Political Science, the University of Edinburgh. She is interested in knowledge construction among scholars and practitioners of international politics, the approaches knowledge-making in the Global East and the conceptualisations of and challenges to academic freedom.

Registration

This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and to avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee everyone a place. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

This event is hybrid and the virtual element will take place on Zoom. Virtual attendees will be sent the joining instructions via email prior to the event.

Please note, filming, recording and/or photography may take place at this event.

If you have any queries regarding this event, please email skape@ed.ac.uk.