Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Perceptions of Social Difference Influence International Engagements

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

How do markers of social difference such as race, nationality, and identity interact to affect approaches to foreign policy? This is a longstanding question in the social sciences whose answers inform our understanding of what promotes versus constrains diplomatic versus hostile relationships at multiple levels of interaction. This doctoral dissertation project investigates the ways that perceptions of social difference intersect to inform interactions among individuals working in international relations. In addition to training a U.S.-based graduate student in scientific cultural anthropology, the work promotes participation of under-represented minorities in science and distributes its findings broadly to academic and non-academic audiences. The project leverages recent changes in how international diplomacy is conducted by members of under-represented minorities to ask whether and how race, nationality, and identity interact to affect approaches to foreign policy. The student investigator conducts participant observation among career diplomats, foreign relations experts, and other stakeholders to understand the day-to-day means by which identity factors inform policy understandings, development, and implementation. The researcher complements this activity with interviews and media analysis to place insights within broader contexts of dynamic international politics. The project provides insights regarding how various aspects of identity intersect to affect relationships among individuals and the extension of these to international diplomacy, adding nuance to theories that have considered identity in a more compartmentalized fashion. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.