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María Paulina Rivera Chávez

Doctoral Fellow

 

Campus am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
Building 1, Room 0.15
14469 Potsdam
Germany

 

consulting hours
by appointment only

Dissertation Project

A history of ideas:  Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policy as part of a “global” project

In 2020, Mexico proudly embraced a feminist foreign policy (FFP), positioning itself as a pioneer from the “Global South”. This project is presented as transformative, as it aims to promote an approach grounded in gender equality, human rights, and intersectionality within foreign policy, one of the most male/masculine dominated areas of study and practice of international politics. However, the ideas underlying this project are built upon the very structures that produce the oppression it claims to dismantle.

 

In my research, I analyse which narratives and ideas shape the current goals of the feminist foreign policy, while also leaving other aspects unspoken. I argue that we should not treat FFP as a moment of exceptionality, but as part of the “Western” project of modernity. By conducting a historical/epistemological analysis, I aim to delineate the principal objectives and implicit assumptions inherent in Mexico’s feminist foreign policy. Moreover, by analysing marginalised epistemologies, I challenge this quest for universality and understand the limitations in the current discourse.


Biography

I am a doctoral fellow in the research group “minor cosmopolitanisms” at the University of Potsdam, Germany. My work focuses on the intersection of foreign policy, feminism and decolonial theory. I am part of the “Red Mexicana de Política Exterior Feminista”, which aims to analyse Mexico’s feminist foreign policy and advocates for an intersectional, plural and horizontal approach in the design and implementation of this policy. I have a decade of experience in the analysis and implementation of Mexico’s foreign policy. Prior to entering academia, I was advisor to the Vice-Minister for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs on gender and sustainable development. I am also the foundress and first director of the International Research Centre of the Matías Romero Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have taught gender and critical theory courses in various universities in Mexico, such as Tecnológico de Monterrey and Universidad Iberoamericana. I hold a master’s in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s in international relations from El Colegio de México. I identify as a decolonial and queer feminist.


Research Interests

  • Decolonial theory
  • Feminism(s)
  • Foreign Policy
  • Critical Theory

Publications

"Feminist Foreign Policy: Coloniality in New Clothes?", Feminist Perspectives, 2022.

Seeing through Alterity/Otherness. A Conceptual Approximation from a Postcolonial to a Decolonial Feminist Foreign Policy”, Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior, 120 (2021), pp. 7-24. ISSN 0185-6022.


Teaching

Gender in global perspective, Tecnológico de Monterrey — 2022

International Organizations, Tecnológico de Monterrey — 2021

Global governance, Universidad Iberoamericana — 2021