Phone
Office Location
730 Hill Hall
Alison Howell is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, Newark, where she is also an affiliate member of Women's and Gender Studies, the Division of Global Affairs, and Global Urban Studies. She previously held research fellowships at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) and in Politics, both at the University of Manchester, as well as a Fulbright at Brown University and SUNY. She is an Associate Editor of Critical Military Studies, and an editorial board member of Critical Studies on Security, International Political Sociology, Security Dialogue and the Review of International Studies.
She has written on topics relating to the international relations of medicine, technoscience, security and warfare in order to advance feminist, critical race, and disability studies approaches to global politics. Her first book, Madness in International Relations examined the authority of psychological knowledge in shaping global security practices in spaces as diverse as militaries, post-conflict situations, and detention camps. Her second book, Race and Security Studies, is under contract with Oxford University Press and is co-authored with Melanie Richter-Montpetit.
Courses Taught
- Global Politics and International Relations Theory
- Militaries and Militarism
- War & Intervention
- Global Health and the Politics of Medicine
- International Security Studies
- Gender and Global Politics, Feminist Theory
- America and the World (US Imperialism)
- The Global Politics of Science and Technology
- Critical Disability Studies
Expertise
International security and critical security studies; Military organizations and warfare; Global mental health, trauma and resilience; Humanitarianism; Military science and scientific racism; Science and Technology Studies; Historical International Relations; Feminist, Critical Race, and Disability Theory
.
Publications
Books
Race and Security Studies. Under contract with Oxford University Press. Co-authored with Melanie Richter-Montpetit.
Madness in International Relations: Psychology, Security and the Global Governance of Mental Health. Book Series: ‘Interventions,’ series editors: Jenny Edkins and Nick Vaughan-Williams. London: Routledge, 2011.
Edited Special Issues and Forums
“Global Health in International Relations.” Review of International Studies. 40:5 (December 2014). Co-edited with Sara E. Davies, Stefan Elbe, and Colin McInnes.
“Toward an International Political Sociology of Health and Medicine.” International Political Sociology. 6:3, (September 2012).
“The Politics of Resilience and Recovery in Mental Health Care.” Studies in Social Justice. 6:2, (Autumn 2012). Co-edited with Jijian Voronka.
Selected Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
"Is Securitization Theory Racist? Civilizationism, methodological whiteness and antiblack thought in the Copenhagen School" Security Dialogue, 51:1 (2020).
"Racism in Foucauldian Security Studies: Biopolitics, Liberal War, and the Whitewashing of Colonial and Racial Violence." International Political Sociology,
13:1 (2019).
"Forget Militarization: Race, Disability, and the Martial Politics of the Police and of the University" International Feminist Journal of Politics. 20:2 (2018): 117-136.
"Neuroscience and War: Human Enhancement, Soldier Rehabilitation, and the Ethical Limits of Dual-use Frameworks." Millennium: Journal of International Studies. 45:2 (2017): 133-150
“Resilience, War, and Austerity: The Ethics of Military Human Enhancement and the Politics of Data.” Security Dialogue. 46:1 (February 2015): 15-31 .
“The Global Politics of Medicine: Beyond Global Health, Against Securitization Theory.” Review of International Studies. 40:5 (December 2014): 961-87.
“The Demise of PTSD: From Governing Trauma to Governance through Resilience.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. Special issue on ‘Governing Traumatic Events’ guest edited by James Brassett and Nick Vaughan-Williams. 36:2 (May 2012).
“Human Interest and Humane Governance in Iraq: Humanitarian War and the Baghdad Zoo.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. 6:2 (2012). Co-authored with Andrew Neal.
“Sovereignty, Security, Psychiatry: Liberation and the Failure of Mental Health Governance in Iraq.” Security Dialogue. 41:4 (August 2010): 347-67.
“Victims or Madmen? The Diagnostic Competition over ‘Terrorist’ Detainees at Guantánamo Bay.” International Political Sociology. 1:1 (March 2007): 29-47.
Selected Book Chapters
“Health, Medicine and the Bio-Sciences” Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology. Pinar Bilgin and Xavier Guillaume, eds. London: Routledge, 2016.
“Making War Work: Resilience, Emotional Fitness, and Affective Economies in Western Militaries” Emotions, Politics and War. Linda Ahall and Thomas Gregory, eds. London: Routledge, forthcoming, 2015.
“Medicine and the Psy Disciplines.” Research Design in Critical Security Studies. Can E. Mutlu and Mark Salter, eds. London: Routledge, 2012.
“The Art of Governing Trauma: Treating PTSD in the Canadian Military as a Foreign Policy Practice” Canadian Foreign Policy in Critical Perspective. Beier & Wylie (eds.). Oxford University Press, 2009.
Editor’s Introductions, Forum Contributions and Response Articles
"From Killing to Mortality? History and Race in Death and Security" Critical Studies on Security, 5(2): 2017.
“Resilience as Enhancement: Governmentality and Political Economy beyond ‘Responsibilisation’” Politics. 35:1 (2015): 67-71. (Invited response to a special issue on resilience)
“Global Health in International Relations: Editor’s Introduction.” Review of International Studies. 40:5 (December 2014): 825-34. Co-authored equally with Sara E. Davies, Stefan Elbe and Colin McInnes.
“Introduction: Toward an International Political Sociology of Health and Medicine.” International Political Sociology. 6:3, (September 2012): 315-16.
“The International Political Sociology of Psychology and Mental Health.” International Political Sociology. 6:3, (September 2012): 331-33.
“Introduction: The Politics of Resilience and Recovery in Mental Health Care.” Studies in Social Justice. 6:2, (Autumn 2012): 1-7. Co-authored with Jijian Voronka.