I'm considering applying to OSU to work with Alex Wendt. But after doing some research it seems that he has supervised almost no women-- and the ones he has seem to be pretty marginalized. Is there something I and other women should know?
Does Wendt work with female PhD students?
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I'm considering applying to OSU to work with Alex Wendt. But after doing some research it seems that he has supervised almost no women-- and the ones he has seem to be pretty marginalized. Is there something I and other women should know?
The lack of women advisees likely reflects the dearth of women in the subfield of IR rather than any latent mysogyny (which your ridiculous comment seems to suggest) . Alex is an excellent adviser, and if you find his work interesting, he is a great person to work with.
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Does he have a poster behind his desk that says "I want to believe"? I suppose there was always unexplored sexual tension between Fox and Scully.
It just hit me, if you are a red headed female medical student, with a metaphysical skepticism matched only by your ascerbic wit, then you would be in for years of adventures, and possibly romance, as the student and research partner of a guy who has connections to the federal government's classified UFO investigations.
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I don't understand why the question is ridiculous. Wendt seems to have had a pretty steady stream of phd students as far back as 1994 or so but I can only find two women. I do realize that women are underrepresented in IR so on one level your point is well taken. But if you run a similar search on other big name scholars (Lake for instance) they have considerably more female advisees for the same time period. It's just a question-- asked honestly. I guess I came to the wrong place for a useful conversation.
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How can anyone in good conscience "nay" this?
Does he have a poster behind his desk that says "I want to believe"? I suppose there was always unexplored sexual tension between Fox and Scully. It just hit me, if you are a red headed female medical student, with a metaphysical skepticism matched only by your ascerbic wit, then you would be in for years of adventures, and possibly romance, as the student and research partner of a guy who has connections to the federal government's classified UFO investigations.
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Thanks to those more recent posts that ask for reasonable follow up: marginalized meaning not able to get a job in academia, in one case; and in another just seeming to have a really hard time getting the dissertation published either in articles or book-- especially compared to the men who worked with him.
But good to hear that someone can attest that he's not sexist.
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This is an interesting, and I think totally legitimate, question, especially given that in my experience women make up a larger percentage of constructivist applicants as compared to IR applicants in general. (That said, I'm not at a school that has a history of producing constructivists, so my impression may be skewed.) One thing to note here is that even over a fairly long period the relatively small N of an individual's advisees may produce misleading impressions. I had a couple female advisees who were defending proposals my first year on the tenure track (and who now have tenure-track jobs), but because my department only yielded men in IR (despite admitting both men and women) in the subsequent half decade I'm going to end up with at least five years between female advisees. So from my perspective there's no definite evidence here that Wendt treats advisees differently depending on gender, but it is something that would be worth asking current grad students about if you're admitted.
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OP's question about the number of my female advisees is a fair one, so let me make a few points.
First, unfortunately I don't think my numbers are that far off the mean. I did a quick count of all the graduated PhD students on whose committees I have served -- mostly as advisor, but some as the #2 -- and came up with 18 men and 10 women. Of the women, 1 is deceased, and 1 left the academy soon after getting her PhD; the rest, like the men, have had varying degrees of success in their careers (and at least 1 I think has been quite successful). I wish my numbers were more balanced, and I work hard not to be sexist in my advising, but I think the real issue here is the under-representation of women in the field overall.
Second, the main determinant of who I end up working with, especially as the primary advisor, is whether a student is interested in theory -- since for better or worse that's what I do. I agree with Oliver that there are probably more women constructivists than, say, realists, but many of these have primarily empirical interests and/or are interested in non-state actors, for whom I'm not likely to be a first choice as an advisor. My own sense is that in IR theory women are even more under-represented than in other areas of IR, and that this is true across the board of theoretical persuasions. If that's true then an interesting question is why, which I don't pretend to have an answer for.
Finally, I want to assure OP that if you are interested in theory (constructivist or not), then I would be happy to work with you, and in any event would encourage you to apply to Ohio State, and if you get in then you can see for yourself what it is like here.