Queen Mary University of London: Queen Mary academic wins feminist political research award

Professor Kimberley Hutchings won the Okin-Young Award in Feminist Political Theory at the Women, Gender and Politics Research Section (WGPRS) Awards 2022, for a paper co-authored with Oxford University’s Professor Patricia Owens entitled ‘Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection, and Reconstitution’.

This prize-winning research is the first sustained attempt to write historical women back into the history of international thought and the academic discipline of International Relations. Professor Hutchings launched a multi-disciplinary collaboration in 2018, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, working with Professor Owens to outline a revisionist history in this new publication.

Award judges were especially impressed by the article’s ability to “speak simultaneously to the interests and concerns of feminist political theorists, as well as to those of a broader audience of political scientists and international relations scholars”.

Following the win, Professor Hutchings said: “We are delighted and honoured to receive this award. The award is not only a prize for us; it is recognition for all of the outstanding women thinkers in the history of international thought who have been ignored and forgotten.”

The Okin-Young Award recognises the best paper on feminist theory published in an English language academic journal during the previous calendar year. It commemorates the scholarly, mentoring and professional contributions of Susan Moller Okin and Iris Marion Young to the development of the field of feminist political theory. This annual award is jointly given by the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section, Foundations of Political Theory, and the Women’s Caucus for Political Science.