V. Spike Peterson is a professor of international relations in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, and affiliated faculty in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, the Institute for LGBT Studies, International Studies, Human Rights Practice Program, and the Center for Latin American Studies. Her cross-disciplinary research and teaching are focused on international relations theory, gender and politics, global political economy, and contemporary social theory.[1] Her recent publications examine the sex/gender and racial dynamics of global inequalities and insecurities and develop critical histories of ancient and modern state formation and Anglo-European imperialism in relation to marriage, migration, citizenship and nationalism. Peterson is "considered to be among the most internationally important senior scholars currently working at the intersections of International Relations, Feminist and Queer Theory, and of International Political Economy."[2]
Like other feminist scholars in the field of international relations, Peterson studies the workings of power, and socially-constructed ideas about sex, gender and sexualities in global politics. Rethinking the terms of IR analyses, International Relations scholars using a feminist and/or queer lens seek to broaden the space in which critical approaches to politics are explored – amongst other features of the international system, critiques are applied to the social reproduction of identities and ideologies, heteronormativity, and structural hierarchies. Peterson describes her research and personal interests as concerned with difference, and with crossing borders – both 'conceptually and territorially'.[3] She has written and published over 75 book chapters and journal articles.[4] As well as her role at the University of Arizona, she has been an Associate Fellow at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics (2008–2011), and has held visiting research scholar or professorships at University of Bristol (2018), University of Manchester (2016), Durham University (2014), London School of Economics (2007, 2008), University of Göteborg (2000), University of Bristol (1998) and the Australian National University (1995).[5]
Peterson has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Grant (1996), a Fulbright Scholarship for research in the Czech Republic (1997), an Udall Center Public Policy Fellowship (2007), and a Rockefeller Bellagio Scholarly Residency (2008).[6] Throughout her career Peterson has received numerous awards, including the LGBTQA Eminent Scholar Award of the International Studies Association (2018), the Charles A. McCoy Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Political Science Association (2016), the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Eminent Scholar Award of the International Studies Association (2004), the national Mentor Award of the Society for Women in International Political Economy (2000), and three teaching awards at the University of Arizona: the Provost's General Education Teaching Award (2001), the Magellan Circle Award for Teaching Excellence (2008), and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean's Award for Excellence in Upper Division Teaching (2014).[7]
V. Spike Peterson holds a Ph.D. in international relations, from American University, Washington, D.C., 1988, an M.A. in social sciences: anthropology/African studies, from the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 1975 and a B.S. with Honors, in psychology/philosophy, from the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 1970.[8]