International Relations
An international relations degree will help you to gain appreciation of how states, international organisations, and non-state actors interact on the global stage. This course is about using theories …
Dr Kathryn Starnes
Senior Lecturer in International Relations
My profile
Biography
After completing my PhD at the University of Manchester and publishing my first book, I joined the MMU politics section in 2017. My research interests focus on international relations theory using narrative and literary approaches. I am keenly interested in how ‘what counts’ as IR theory is policed by the stories we tell about our discipline and how this shapes who can produce knowledge about IR. This has serious implications for what we focus on, how we expend resources, who is protected from or subject to certain kinds of violence and who has a voice in deciding these things. My current work examines the intersection between who forms the knowledge producing community and the relationship that has with the kinds of knowledge that community produces, including the informal practices used to demarcate some as part of the community and their knowledge as legitimate. I do this through using research based on folklore and fairy tales. I also work within my local community to recover, rewrite and re-imagine local folklore alongside other members of my community as we address key social and political issues. Outside of work I enjoy gardening, cooking and food preservation, the social history of food and everyday household objects, and a variety of textile crafts.
Academic and professional qualifications
PhD Politics and International Relations, Manchester University
Msc(Econ) International Relations, The University of Wales, Aberystwyth
BA International Relations, The University of Southern California
Languages
Native English
Intermediate French
Teaching
Why do I teach?
I enjoy teaching, and particularly enjoy engaging with students to find out why they are interested in international relations. My research focuses on how to make the process of knowing about the world more accessible and teaching is thus an integral part of this. One strand of my research focuses on radical pedagogical approaches to theory and this research directly informs my teaching.
How I’ll teach you
I ask a lot of questions about what you’re interested in, why you want to study and what it is about the world that you find the most interesting or the most frustrating. I will then help you to explore how your coursework will give you the theoretical foundations to engage with what interests you the most. I leave a lot of space for students to reflect and expect students to engage with the academic community and each other to challenge each other and themselves.
Subject areas
International Relations
Decolonial and Postcolonial Approaches to IR
Feminist Approaches to IR
Disciplinary History
Narrative and narratological IR
IR and Storytelling
Supervision
I’m interested in supervising projects in the following area:
Narrative and literary approaches to International Politics including storytelling, folklore, story as method and autoethnographic approaches
Critical and poststructuralist International Politics, particularly focusing on epistemic violence and justice
Critical approaches to the IR canon including critical engagements with the existing canon, recovery projects for formerly marginalised work, and broader projects on the history and discipline formation of IR.
Research outputs
My publications broadly fall into three areas of focus, all culminating around the use of fairy tales and folklore to explore narrative. The first strand focuses on the politics of canon formation and disruption in IR, the second on fostering political engagement through folkloric practices of building a knowledge community, and the third on pedagogical innovations based on the first two strands.
A selection of my research outputs can be found on my Google Scholar page:
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Starnes, K. (2016) Fairy Tales and International Relations A Folklorist Reading of IR Textbooks. Taylor & Francis.
Starnes, K. (2016) Fairy Tales and International Relations: A folklorist reading of International Relations textbooks.
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Chapters in books
Starnes, K. 'Teaching International Studies Through Folklore and Fairy Tales.' Oxford Handbook of International Studies Pedagogies. Oxford University Press,
Starnes, K., Bruff, I. (2019) 'Framing the neoliberal canon: resisting the market myth via literary enquiry.' Authoritarian Neoliberalism Philosophies, Practices, Contestations. Routledge,
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Journal articles
Starnes, K. (2023) 'Absent Mothers: a folkloric reading of the exclusionary practices of writing IR's canonical history.' Global Studies Quarterly, 3(1) pp. ksad003-ksad003.
Starnes, K. (2021) 'The case for creative folklore in pedagogical practice.' Art & the Public Sphere, 10(2) pp. 225-232.
Bruff, I., Orth, K. (2019) 'Framing the neoliberal canon: resisting the market myth via literary enquiry.' Globalizations, 16(3) pp. 245-259.
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Non-peer reviewed articles / reviews
Starnes, K. (2023) Book review: Symbolic objects in contentious politics.
Starnes, K. (2022) Book review: Tears of Theory: International Relations as Storytelling.
Starnes, K. (2022) Review- Women's International Thought.
Press and media
I am available to discuss broader issues around who is consulted in making political decisions, how to foster community political and social discussion and the politics and history of folklore and fairy tales.