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

种族、国籍和身份等社会差异的标志如何相互作用，影响外交政策的方法？这是社会科学中一个由来已久的问题，它的答案让我们了解到，在多个层面的互动中，是什么促进了外交关系，还是限制了外交关系与敌对关系。这一博士论文项目调查了社会差异的感知如何相交，从而为从事国际关系工作的个人之间的互动提供信息。除了培训一名在美国的研究生学习科学文化人类学外，这项工作还促进了未被充分代表的少数群体参与科学，并将其发现广泛地分发给学术和非学术受众。该项目利用代表性不足的少数群体成员进行国际外交的方式最近的变化，询问种族、国籍和身份认同是否以及如何相互作用，以影响外交政策的方法。学生调查员在职业外交官、外交关系专家和其他利益相关者中进行参与者观察，以了解身份因素影响政策理解、发展和实施的日常方式。研究人员通过采访和媒体分析来补充这一活动，以将洞察力置于动态国际政治的更广泛背景中。该项目提供了关于身份的各个方面如何相互交织以影响个人之间的关系以及将这些方面扩展到国际外交的见解，为以更划分的方式考虑身份的理论增添了细微差别。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.