Podcast
About Voices: The EISA Podcast
Voices: The EISA Podcast is the official broadcast of EISA, the European International Studies Association.
Voices, the space for cutting-edge research in the discipline of International Relations is the audible companion to EISA. The podcast sets the stage for deeper insights into award-winning papers, books, theses, as much as it provides a room for the critical engagement with key concepts in political & sociological thought.
Voices: The EISA Podcast traces how these concepts have been taken up in the discipline of IR. It interrogates their emergence, their gendered and racialized omissions, and their relevance to current debates and analyses.
Through our erudite interview guests, a wide range of critical reading, and reflections on our everyday experiences, Voices: The EISA Podcast helps to think through core IR concepts.
Where to listen
to the podcast
Episodes
E39 – What is…Green Militarism?
In this episode, we speak with Dr Esther Marijnen, Associate Professor and Political Ecologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Esther’s work explores the uneasy entanglements of nature, military conflict, […]
E38 – What is…the Arms Trade?
What is the arms trade, and how does it shape our world? In our first episode of 2026, we explore why scholars of international relations should pay closer attention to […]
E37- In Conversation with Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín
In this episode, host Polly speaks with Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín (New York University), winner of this year’s EISA Best Dissertation Award for his dissertation Architects of the Better World: Democracy, Law, […]
E36- Why is…the Recognition of Palestinian Statehood Causing Debate?
In this special Voices episode, we unpack the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by several Western governments, including the UK, France, Portugal, Canada, and Australia. The move came shortly after […]
E35- In Conversation with Alvina Hoffmann
In this episode, we welcome Alvina Hoffmann (SOAS), winner of EISA’s 2025 Best Article Award from the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR). In her award-winning article “What Makes a […]
E34- What is…Brexit, if not a Shock?
Short episode description: This month, we re flipping the script: Our new episode features our producer Judith Koch (University of Sussex), whose recent PhD research offers a fresh perspective on […]
E33- Why is… Rahul Rao interested in the Psychic Lives of Statues?
What do recent controversies over statues reveal about global politics and the legacy of empire? In this episode, Rahul Rao (University of St. Andrews) joins us to discuss his new […]
E32- What is…No Man’s Land, and is it as abandoned of life as the name suggests?
In this episode, we are joined by Noam Leshem (Durham University) to discuss his new book Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land. Noam Leshem explores the […]
E31- What is…Climate Justice?
What does a just energy transition look like, and how do politics and power shape the global transition to low-carbon energy? In this episode, we speak with Peter Newell (University […]
E30-In Conversation with Iosif Kovras
In this episode, we are joined by Iosif Kovras, winner of the 2024 EISA Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award, who explores the transformative role […]
E29-What is…Love and Care in International Relations?
What does it mean to take love and care seriously in the “deathworlds” of International Relations? How can these concepts reshape how we understand and navigate worlds marked by loss […]
E28-In Conversation with Anna Finiguerra
What are the politics of human mobility through the lenses of visibility and invisibility? What does it mean for movement to be seen – or unseen – and who controls […]
E27-Why is… Sophie Harman Sick of It?
Why do women still die when they don´t have to? Despite global advancements and available resources, preventable deaths among women persist. Women continue to shoulder the weight of healthcare work […]
E26-What is…Dependency Theory?
Power and wealth by states and regions are not always determined by political domination or military force, but through intricate economic dependencies and hierarchies. Dependency Theory provides a crucial framework […]
E25-What is…Precarity in Academia? – Exploring Migrant Academics’ Narratives
This episode explores the experiences of migrant academics. We are joined by Olga Burlyuk (University of Amsterdam) and Ladan Rahbari (University of Amsterdam), editors of “Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity […]
E24-What is…Genocide?
Since South Africa brought the case of applying the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice […]
E23-What is…Academic Freedom?
In times marked by escalating challenges to academic freedom, this episode unravels the essence of academic freedom, its significance, and the pressing need to safeguard it. From institutional repression and […]
E22-In Conversation with Jonathan White
This episode delves into the dynamics of institutional power and explores the implications when power in transnational orders, such as the EU, undergoes de-institutionalization. Jonathan White (LSE)´s article “The De-institutionalisation […]
E21-In Conversation with Uygar Başpehlivan
Almost every major political event over the past decade has been “memed”. This episode delves into the dynamic world of internet memes and their significance for the study of International […]
E20- What is…the new Voices in IR Book Series?
This episode introduces the new EISA “Voices in International Relations” book series, published with Oxford University Press (OUP). Professor Debbie Lisle (Queen’s University Belfast), and series editor of the EISA/OUP […]
E19- What is…Technology in IR?
Why should IR scholars pay attention to new technologies, big data, and algorithms? In this episode, we are joined by Claudia Aradau, Professor of International Politics at King’s College London, […]
E18- In Conversation with Stefan Elbe
The Covid 19 Pandemic highlighted, once again, the importance of sharing scientific knowledge about deceases internationally. What are the hurdles to sharing information about the nature of a deadly virus […]
E17- What is…Friendship in International Politics?
How can the study of friendship enhance our understanding of international politics? Evgeny Roshchin (Princeton University) draws on conceptual history inspired by Quentin Skinner to trace the development of the […]
E16- What is…Decolonising Knowledge in IR ?
Decolonising knowledge in academia can be understood as the process of interrogating and reshaping research and teaching born out of a Eurocentric, colonial lens and maintained by power structures invested […]
E15- In Conversation with Xymena Kurowska and Anatoly Reshetnikov
This episode takes a closer look at the notion of the ‘trickster’, a figure that seeks to undermine order and sow confusion around their actions by employing contradictory logic. To […]
E14- What is…Memory Studies in IR?
What does it mean to remember in IR? How does collective memory shape global politics, including inter-state relations, foreign policy formation, as well as security and peacebuilding? And reversely, what […]
E13- What is…Women’s International Thought?
Where are the women in international thought? Why have they been excluded from the discipline of IR, and where does this neglect of female scholars come from? In their Leverhulme […]
E12- What is…Uneven and Combined Development?
Uneven and Combined Development (UCD) is a social theory of the international. Originating in the writings of Leon Trotsky, most explicitly in the opening chapter of Trotsky’s The History of […]
E11- What is…Political Marxism?
Tracing back to Robert Brenner’s seminal work on the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and Ellen Wood’s account of the origin and development of capitalism, Political Marxism continues to inspire […]
E10- What is…Area Studies?
What does it mean to do Area Studies, and what is the relationship between Area Studies and IR? In this podcast, Lindsay Black (Leiden University) explains the research agenda of […]
E09- What is…Postcolonial Theory?
Sankaran Krishna (UH Manoa, Hawaii) is a leading postcolonial scholar in International Relations whose work is concerned with the long-ignored but integral elements of the international system – colonialism, racism, […]
E08-What is…Geopolitical Theory?
In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, geopolitics has assumed greater salience in both public discourse as well as academic discussions. Theoretically, geopolitics is considered integral to Realism in […]
E07-What is…Realism?
Realism has been one of the most influential theories in the discipline of International Relations. Its critics often label it variously as positivist, state-centric, militaristic, imperialistic, materialistic, immoral and a […]
E06-What is…Practice Theory in International Relations?
What does a ‘practice turn’ mean in International Relations? In this episode Ingvild Bode (University of Denmark), Associate Professor of International Relations, and Principal Investigator of an ERC research project […]
E05-In Conversation with Kerry Goettlich
How can we theoretically engage with linear borders as cartographic practice, thereby acknowledging their political dimension and place within projects of colonialism and partition? Kerry Goettlich (Reading), winner of the […]
E04–What is…Ontological Security?
In this episode Bahar Rumelili (Koç University, İstanbul) discusses the concept of ontological security (OS) with host Beste İşleyen (University of Amsterdam). By unpacking the notion of ontological security, we […]
E03- What is…Liberalism?
This first edition of the new VOICES series “What is…?” focuses on liberalism as a concept in International Relations (IR). Liberalism in its many contexts – be it in political […]
E02- In Conversation with Ida Danewid
What can the Grenfell Tower fire in London 2017 teach us about the racialized structure of the cities we live in? What are the implications of understanding the violence of […]
E01- In Conversation with Deepak Nair
What makes ASEAN diplomacy distinct? Deepak Nair (NUS Singapore), the co-winner of EISA’s 2020 best article award, rejects both essentialist/orientalist as well as generic readings of ASEAN diplomacy and presents […]