Professor Louise Chappell Reflects on her SPS-IASH Fellowship.
(Reproduced with kind permission from Bricolage December 2013 Issue 3)
Professor Louise Chappell
Professor Louise Chappell was the SPS-IASH Visiting scholar and Chrystal Macmillan Lecturer 2013. She is a feminist political scientist at UNSW and is an ARC Futures Professorial Fellow. Louise works in the area of human rights, gender justice, international relations and international organisations - particularly the International Criminal Court. She is finishing a book for Oxford University Press on the first ten years of the ICC.
What have been the most memorable moments of your six-month stay?
Arriving at IASH to a spacious and light-filled office and very warm welcome from Anthea Taylor and Jolyon Mitchell will be an abiding memory. Engaging with IASH colleagues working across the humanities and social sciences has also been a real treat.
Having the opportunity to present the Annual Chrystal Macmillan lecture was an extremely gratifying experience, and a humbling one given Chrystal’s incredible legacy. As research is mostly a solitary experience, I really appreciated the chance to talk about my work to a large audience, and to have Professor Christine Bell (Law), someone whose work I’ve long admired, comment on my presentation.
Which media and outreach activities have you been involved in?
I’ve really enjoyed the chance to undertake these activities. I gave an interview to BBC Woman’s Hour on the role of women in the Australian election. I had pieces published in The Conversation and PIR’s student journal Leviathan based on the subject of the Chrystal Macmillan lecture and wrote a blog for IntLawGrrls reflecting on my experiences at the ICC’s annual states parties meeting in the Hague in November. I’ve also been interviewed about my research for a joint Global Justice and the Global Development Academy podcast. With Jolyon Mitchell, I also participated in a panel at the African Film Festival discussing the ‘Children’s Republic’, a film which deals with the issue of child soldiers.
What will you miss most about the University and the city?
I’ll miss the collegiality I’ve experienced at IASH. I’ve been especially impressed with the quality of the post doc community there and will miss the opportunity to engage with them on a weekly basis at IASH lunches and seminars. I’ll also miss engaging with colleagues in SPS and Law, particularly through the Global Justice Academy. This is a terrific initiative and it’s been very rewarding to be involved in GJA forums where academics have been able to talk across disciplinary boundaries to discover and build research synergies.
Edinburgh is a jewel of a city. I’ll miss the beauty of the surroundings, my daily walk across the meadows to the University, and of course the friendly people. My children will also miss their new friends and the community at Tollcross, their fabulous community school.
Has your stay been productive for your research?
It’s been an extremely productive time for me. While at IASH I’ve written a number of conference and workshop papers that will provide the basis for chapters of my forthcoming book on Gender Justice and the ICC. Having the time to engage in detailed conversations with my longstanding collaborator in SPS, Fiona Mackay, has been very important to refining the conceptual framework I’m using to analyse my empirical data on the International Criminal Court. I’ve also benefited from really useful comments from colleagues across the disciplines of Law, Politics/IR and Anthropology to papers I’ve presented Edinburgh, Cambridge, Warwick and Manchester over the last six months.
Have you made many new contacts and connections?
I’ve made connections with a range of new colleagues in SPS and across the College. The Global Justice Academy has been a terrific forum for this, bringing me into contact with others working in similar fields, such as Zoe Marks and Gerhard Anders in African Studies, Claire Duncanson and Mathias Thaler in PIR, Toby Kelly in Anthropology, and a number of Law colleagues, including the GJA Director, Christine Bell, Andy Aitchison and Sharon Cowan.
The SPS-IASH fellowship has also provided me with an opportunity to build relationships with some great people outside my field including in political theory, history and literature. I hope to be able to keep in touch with them when they return to their home institutions, as well as with IASH’s delightful and insightful Academic Director, Jolyon Mitchell.