Professor Kimberly Hutchings, BSc (Bristol), MA (Sussex), PhD (Sussex)
Professor of Politics and International Relations
Email: k.hutchings@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 8586
Room Number: ArtsOne 2.32
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00-12:00 (in person) and Fridays 13:30-14:30 (online). Please email to book.
Profile
Professor Kimberly Hutchings started her academic career teaching philosophy at Wolverhampton University then moved to the Department of Politics at Edinburgh University, where she taught political and international theory and was also Head of Department (1999-2002). She spent the years 2003-2014 in the International Relations Department at the London School of Economics, where she was Professor of International Relations (from 2007), and also Head of Department (2010-2013).
Kimberly came to QMUL in 2014 and was Head of School 2019-20. Her publications include Kant, Critique and Politics (1996), International Political Theory (1998), Hegel and Feminist Philosophy (2003); Time and World Politics (2008); Global Ethics: an introduction (2nd edition, 2018); Violence and Political Theory (with Elizabeth Frazer) (2020); Women’s International Thought: towards a new canon (Co-Editor with Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler and Sarah Dunstan) (2022 – winner of the International Studies Association Award for best edited volume, and the British International Studies Susan Strange Award, 2023). Kimberly was awarded the inaugural British International Studies prize for Distinguished Contribution to the Profession in 2015, and a Distinguished Scholar Award from the Theory Section of the International Studies Association in 2016, and from the Ethics Section of the International Studies Association in 2020, she was awarded the Isaiah Berlin prize for an outstanding lifetime professional contribution to Political Studies in 2023. See 2023 Thinking Global podcast of her recent collaborative work on ‘Women and the History of International Thought’ here.
Teaching
POL385
POL263
POL264
POL251
Postgraduate Teaching
Research
Research Interests:
I am interested in our frameworks for thinking about politics, and the ideas and assumptions that structure and influence political and ethical judgment and action. I work in the area of political and international theory and philosophy. I did my PhD on the philosophies of Kant and Hegel, and my work since then has developed ideas in the areas of international ethics, feminist philosophy and international political theory. My interests cut across the conventional distinction between ‘Politics’ and ‘IR’.
Current research projects:
- international ethics, in particular the ethics of war and pacifism
- concepts of politics and violence in the work of political thinkers, and how the line between politics and violence is drawn in theory and in practice (working in collaboration with Dr Elizabeth Frazer at the University of Oxford) click here for more information
- women in the history of international political thought, working with Patricia Owens (University of Sussex) and Katharina Rietzler (University of Sussex) on a Leverhulme funded project 2018-2021.
- feminist and postcolonial interpretations of Hegel’s ethical and political thought
Publications
Books
Women’s International Thought: towards a new canon, co-edited with Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler and Sarah Dunstan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Violence and Political Theory, co-authored with Elizabeth Frazer (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020).
Can Political Violence Ever be Justified? Co-authored with Elizabeth Frazer (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019).
Global Ethics: an introduction (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2018 2nd Revised Edition). First Edition 2010, translated into Chinese 2015.
Hegel’s Philosophy and Feminist Thought: Beyond Antigone? Edited with Tuija Pulkkinen (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
Time and World Politics: thinking the present (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2008)
Hegel and Feminist Philosophy (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2003)
International Political Theory: Re-thinking Ethics in a Global Era (London, Sage, 1999)
Cosmopolitan Citizenship edited with Roland Dannreuther (London, Macmillan, 1999)
Kant, Critique and Politics (London, Routledge, 1996)
Forums
Kimberly Hutchings and Patricia Owens (eds) Special Issue on Women and the History of International Thought, Global Studies Quarterly 3 (1) 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksad017
“On Canons and Question Marks: the work of women’s international thought”, with Sarah Dunstan, Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler, Anne Phillips, Catherine Lu, Christopher J. Finlay and Manjeet Ramgotra. Critical Exchange in Contemporary Political Theory 21 (1) 2022: 114-141.
Journal Articles
“Doing Epistemic Justice in International Relations: women and the history of international thought”, European Journal of International Relations, April 2023, online first: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.qmul.ac.uk/10.1177/13540661231169165
“Feminist Pacifism and the Timeliness of Being Untimely”, Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence, 1 (1) 2023: 104-113.
“Empire and Insurgency: the politics of truth in Alexander Wendt’s Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology”, International Theory 14 (1) 2022: 183-192.
“Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection and Reconstitution”, with Patricia Owens, American Political Science Review 115 (2) 2021: 347-359.
“Just War Theory and the Martial Imagination”, Contemporary Political Theory Online First: DOI: 10.1057/s41296-020-00453-x, November 2020, file:///D:/Ethics/Critical%20Exchange%20on%20JWT/10.1057_s41296-020-00453-x.pdf
“The Politics-Violence Frontier”, with Elizabeth Frazer, Journal of Political Ideologies 25 (3) 2020: 229-247.
“From Just War Theory to Ethico-Political Pacifism”, Critical Studies on Security 7 (3) 2019: 191-198.
“The Feminist Politics of Naming Violence”, with Elizabeth Frazer, Feminist Theory, 21 (2) 2019: 199-216.
“Decolonizing Global Ethics: thinking with the pluriverse”, Ethics and international Affairs 33 (2) 2019: 115-125.
“Anarchist Ambivalence: politics and violence in the thought of Bakunin, Tolstoy and Kropotkin”, with Elizabeth Frazer, European Journal of Political Theory, 18 (2) 2019: 259-80.
“Pacifism is Dirty: towards an ethico-political defence”, Critical Studies on Security, 6 (2) 2018: 176-192.
“War and Moral Stupidity”, Review of International Studies, 44 (1) 2018: 83-100.
“Negotiating the lines between War and Politics: Machiavelli’s gendering of war and peace”, International Politics 53 (4) 2016: 519-533.
“Thinking Ethically about the Global in ‘Global Ethics’” Journal of Global Ethics 10 (1) 2014: 26-29.
“Beyond Traditions in International Thought”. Contribution to a Critical Exchange on David Armitage’s Foundations of Modern International Thought, Contemporary Political Theory 13 (4) 2014: 387-92.
“Feminism and the Critique of Violence: negotiating feminist political agency”, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Journal of Political Ideologies 19 (2) 2014: 143-163.
“Revisiting Ruddick: Feminism, pacifism and non-violence”, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Journal of International Political Theory. 10 (1) 2014: 109-124.
“What is Orientation in Thinking? On the Question of Time and Timeliness in Cosmopolitical Thought”, Constellations: an international journal of critical and democratic theory. 18 (2) 2011: 190-204.
“Remnants and Revenants: politics and violence in the work of Agamben and Derrida”, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 13 (2) (2011): 127-144.
‘Dialogue Between Whom? The role of the west/ non-west distinction in promoting global dialogue in IR’, Millennium: journal of international studies. 39 (3) 2011: 639-647.
‘Avowing Violence: Foucault and Derrida in Politics, Discourse and Meaning’, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Philosophy and Social Criticism 37 (1) 2011: 3-23.
‘Virtuous Violence and the Politics of Statecraft in Machiavelli, Clausewitz and Weber’, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Political Studies 59 (1) 2011: 56-73.
‘Good Fathers and Rebellious Daughters: reading women in Benhabib’s international political theory’, International Political Theory 5 (2) 2009: 113-124.
‘Politics, Violence and Revolutionary Virtue: reflections on Locke and Sorel’, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Thesis Eleven 97, 2009: 46-63.
‘1988 and 1998: Contrast and Continuity in Feminist International Relations’, Millennium: journal of international studies 37 (1) 2008: 97-105.
‘Making Sense of Masculinity and War’, Men and Masculinities, 10 (4), 2008: 389-404.
‘On Politics and Violence: Arendt Contra Fanon’, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, Contemporary Political Theory, 7 (1) 2008: 90-108.
‘Argument and Rhetoric in the Justification of Political Violence’, jointly authored with Elizabeth Frazer, European Journal of Political Theory 6 (2) 2007: 180-199.
‘Feminist Ethics and Political Violence’ in Special Issue International Politics, J. Brassett & D. Bulley (eds) 44 (1) 2007: 90-106.
‘Whose History? Whose Justice?’, Theory, Culture and Society, 24 (4), 2007: 59-63.
‘Simone de Beauvoir and the Ambiguous Ethics of Political Violence’, Hypatia: journal of feminist philosophy Vol 22, No. 3: 2007: 111-132.
‘Happy Anniversary! Time and critique in international relations theory’, Review of International Studies Vol 33 Special Issue, April: 2007: 71-89.
‘Speaking and Hearing: Habermasian Discourse Ethics, Feminism and International Relations’, Review of International Studies, Vol. 31, 2005: 155-165.
‘From Morality to Politics and Back Again: Feminist International Ethics and the Civil Society Argument’, Alternatives, Vol. 29, 2004: 239-263.
‘World Politics and the Question of Progress’, Redescriptions: Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History (formerly Finnish Yearbook of Political Thought) Volume 8, 2004: 211-234. Revised version of ‘Global Civil Society: thinking politics and progress’ in G. Baker & D. Chandler (eds) Global Civil Society: contested futures (London, Routledge, 2004): pp 130-148.
'De-Beauvoir's Hegelianism: Rethinking the Second Sex', Radical Philosophy, No. 107, May/June 2001: pp. 21-31.
'Towards a Feminist International Ethics', Special Issue, Review of International Studies, Vol 26, December 2000: pp. 111-130.
'Beyond Antigone: towards a Hegelian Feminist Philosophy' Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, Nos. 41/42, Summer 2000: pp. 120-131.
'The Question of Self-Determination and Its Implications for Normative International Theory', Contemporary Review of International, Social and Political Philosophy, Special Issue, P Jones & S Caney (eds) Vol 3, No. 1, 2000: pp. 91-120.
'Reason, Knowledge and Truth: Speculative Thinking and Feminist Epistemology'. Women's Philosophy Review, no. 23 (1999), pp. 5-33.
'Feminist Theory and Citizenship', CSD Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1998: pp. 8-10.
'Modelling Democracy', Global Society, Vol 12, No. 2, May 1998: pp. 159-175.
Revised version in H Smith (ed) Democracy and International Relations (London, Macmillan, 2000).
'Moral Deliberation and Political Judgment: Reflections on Benhabib's Interactive Universalism', Theory, Culture and Society, Vol 14, No.1, 1997: pp. 131-139.
'The Death of the Sovereign Individual: Reflections on Feminist Analyses of Political and Moral Agency', M Griffiths & M Whitford (eds) New Writing by Women in Philosophy, Special Issue of Women's Philosophy Review, March 1996: pp. 1-25.
'Borderline Ethics: Feminist Morality and International Relations', C Brown (ed) International Ethics, Special Issue of Paradigms (now Global Society), Vol.8, No.1, 1994: pp. 23-35.
'The Possibility of Judgment: Moralizing and Theorizing in International Relations', Review of International Studies, Vol.18, No.1, 1992: pp. 51-62.
'Perpetual War/Perpetual Peace: Kant, Hegel and the End of History', Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, Nos. 23/24, 1991: pp. 39-50.
Chapters in Edited Collections
“Family, Civil Society and the State”, in S. Lettow and T. Pulkkinen (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Feminist Philosophy (Cham: Springer Nature, 2023): 231-247. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13123-3
“Revolutionary Thinking: Luxemburg’s Socialist International Theory” in Patricia Owens and Katharina Rietzler (eds) Women’s International Thought: a new history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021): 52-71. 2021: Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations, Historical International Relations Section, ISA; 2021: Best Edited Volume, Theory Section, ISA.
“Teaching About Sexual Violence in War”, in Shine Choi, Anna Selmeczi and Erzsébet Strausz (eds) Critical Methods for the Study of World Politics: Creativity and Transformation (London: Routledge, 2019)
“Cosmopolitan Just War and Coloniality” in Duncan Bell (ed) Empire, Race and Global Justice (Winner of International Studies Association Joseph Fletcher Prize) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019): 211-227.
“The Politics of Judgment in International Political Theory” in Mathias Albert and Anthony F. Lang Jnr (eds) The Politics of International Political Theory: reflections on the works of Chris Brown (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019): 39-53.
“A history of International Ethics” in Brent J. Steele and Eric A. Heinze (eds) Routledge Handbook of Ethics and International Relations (London and New York: Routeldge, 2018): 7-20.
“Beauvoir and Hegel” in Nancy Bauer and Laura Hengehold (eds) A Companion to Beauvoir (Oxford: Blackwell, 2017): 187-197.
“Violence and Vulnerability” (co-authored with Elizabeth Frazer) in Ann Garry, Serene J. Khader and Alison Stone (eds) The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2017): 689-700.
"Living the Contradictions: Wives, Husbands and Children in Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right", in David James (ed) Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right: a critical guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017): pp. 97-115.
“Hannah Arendt” in Brad Evans and Terell Carver (eds) Histories of Violence: post war critical thought (London: Zed Books, 2017): pp. 31-47.
“Feminist Knowledge and Feminist Politics: reflections on Howie and late feminism” in Victoria Browne and Daniel Whistler (eds) Philosophy as Embodied Practice: essays for Gillian Howie (London: Bloomsbury, 2016) pp. 43-57.
“Time Creators and Time Creatures in the Ethics of World Politics” published in E-International Relations Open Access Website, July 24th 2016 http://www.e-ir.info/?s=time+creatures+and+time+creators&cat=50
“A Conversation with Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)”. In Richard Ned Lebow, Peer Schouten and Hidemi Suganami (eds) (2016) The Return of the Theorists (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan): 245-253.
“Drawing the Line Between Violence and Non-Violence: deceits and conceits” (co-authored with Elizabeth Frazer) in Christine Sylvester (ed) Masquerades of War (Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2015).
“Time, Politics and Critique: re-thinking the ‘when’ question” in Kate Nash (ed) Transnationalizing the Public Sphere (Cambridge, Polity, 2014)
Encyclopedia entries for The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, Editor in Chief Michael Gibbons (Wiley-Blackwell, published online September 2014):
“G. W. F. Hegel”
“Philosophy of History”
“Time and Political Theory”
“Eschatology”
“Pain”
“Non-Violence”
“Liberal Quotidian Practices of World Ordering”. In Tim Dunne and Trine Flockhart (eds) (2013) Liberal World Orders. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 157-172.
“Universalism in feminist international ethics: gender and the difficult labour of translation”. In Jude Browne (ed) (2013) Dialogue, Politics and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 81-106.
“A Place of Greater Safety? Securing Judgment in International Ethics’. In Amanda Russell Beattie and Kate Schick (eds) (2013) The Vulnerable Subject: beyond rationalism in international relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 25-42.
“Choosers or Losers? Feminist Ethical and Political Agency in a Plural and Unequal World’. In Sumi Madhok, Anne Phillips and Kalpana Wilson (eds) (2013) Gender, Agency and Coercion Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 14-28.
“Turning Towards the World: practicing critique in IR”. In Shannon Brincat, Laura Lima and João Nunes (eds) (2012) Critical Theory in International Relations and Security Studies. London & New York: Routledge: 207-216.
‘Hard Work: Hegel and the Meaning of the State in his Philosophy of Right’ in Thom Brooks (ed) (2012) Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Oxford: Blackwell.
“Gendered Humanitarianism: reconsidering the ethics of war” in Christine Sylvester (ed) Experiencing War (London and New York, Routledge, 2011): 28-41.
‘’Knowing Thyself: Hegel, Feminism and an Ethics of Heteronomy’ in Kimberly Hutchings and Tuija Pulkkinen (eds) Hegel’s Philosophy and Feminist Thought: Beyond Antigone? (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): 87-107.
‘Introduction: Reading Hegel’ in Kimberly Hutchings and Tuija Pulkkinen (eds) Hegel’s Philosophy and Feminist Thought: Beyond Antigone? (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): 1-15.
‘Feminism’ in Duncan Bell (ed) Ethics and World Politics (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010): 164-180.
‘Global Justice’ in Colin Hay (ed) New Directions in Political Science: responding to the challenges of an interdependent world (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): 231-249.
‘Ethics’ in Laura J. Shepherd (ed) Gender Matters in Global Politics: a feminist introduction to international relations (Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2010): 61-73.
‘Dream or Nightmare? Thinking the future of world politics’ in Gideon Baker and Jens Bartelson (eds) The Future of Political Community (Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2009): 15-35.
‘Simone de Beauvoir’ in Jenny Edkins & Nick Vaughan-Williams (eds) Critical Theorists and International Relations (Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2009): 66-76.
‘Cognitive Shortcuts’ in Jane L. Parpart & Marysia Zalewski (eds) Re-thinking the Man Question: sex, gender and violence in international relations (London, Zed Books, 2008): 23-46.
‘Feminism as a Planetary Ethic’ in W. A. Galston and W. M. Sullivan (eds) Globalization of Ethics, Cambridge University Press (2007)
‘Hegel, Ethics and the Logic of Universality’, K. Deligiorgi (ed) Hegel: New Directions (Chesham, Acumen, 2006): pp105-123.
‘Subjects, Citizens or Pilgrims? Citizenship and Civil society in a Global Context’ in Randall D. Germain & Michael Kenny (eds) The Idea of Global Civil Society: politics and ethics in a globalizing era (London, Routledge, 2005): pp 84-99.
'Feminism', R Axtmann (ed) Understanding Democratic Politics (London, Sage, 2003): pp291-299
'Feminism and Global Citizenship', N Dower & J Williams (eds) Global Citizenship: A Critical Reader (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2002): pp. 53-62.
'International Politics as Ethical Life', H Seckinelgin & H Shinoda (eds) Ethics and International Relations (Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2001): pp. 30-55.
'Ethics, Feminism and International Affairs', J-M Coicaud & D Warner (eds) Ethics and International Affairs: Extent and Limits (New York and Tokyo, United Nations University Press, 2001): pp. 194-216. Revised and updated version in Coicaud & Warner Op Cit. 2nd Edition 2013: 199-217.
'The Nature of Critique in Critical International Theory', R Wynne Jones (ed) Critical Theory and World Politics (Boulder CO, Lynne Riener, 2001): pp. 79-90
'New Thinking in International Relations' in G Browning, A Halcli & F Webster (eds) Theory and Society: Understanding the Present (London, Sage Publications, 1999): pp. 191-204
'Feminism, Universalism and the Ethics of International Politics', V Jabri & E O'Gorman (eds) Women, Culture and International Relations (Boulder CO, Lynne Reiner, 1999): pp. 17-37.
'Political Theory and Cosmopolitan Citizenship', K. Hutchings & R. Dannreuther (eds) Cosmopolitan Citizenship (London, Macmillan, 1999): pp. 3-32.
'Feminist Politics and Cosmopolitan Citizenship', K. Hutchings & R. Dannreuther (eds) Cosmopolitan Citizenship (London, Macmillan, 1999): pp. 120-142.
'Foucault and International Relations Theory', The Impact of Michel Foucault on the Humanities and Social Sciences, M Lloyd & A Thacker (Eds), (London, Macmillan, 1997): pp. 102-127.
'Hegel and Foucault on Politics and Truth', I Hampsher Monk & J Stanyer (eds) Contemporary Political Studies, Vol 1, 1996 (PSA Conference Proceedings): pp. 151-158.
'The Idea of International Citizenship', Ethical Dimensions of Global Change, B Holden (Ed), (London, Macmillan, 1996): pp. 113-134.
'The Personal is International: Feminist Epistemology and the Case of International Relations', Knowing the Difference. Feminist Perspectives in Epistemology, K Lennon & M Whitford (Eds), (London, Routledge, 1994): pp. 149-163.
Supervision
I have supervised more than 20 PhD students to successful completion, and examined theses in the UK, USA, Australia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. I am currently supervising 7 doctoral students at QMUL.
I am happy to supervise students in the following areas:
- International/ global ethics
- Political theories of violence
- Ethical and political philosophy of Kant and Hegel
- Critical International Relations Theory
- Feminist ethical and political thought