J. Ann Tickner

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J. Ann Tickner is a feminist international relations (IR) theorist. She is a professor at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her books include Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post-Cold War Era (Columbia University, 2001), Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving International Security (Columbia University, 1992), and (Columbia University, 1987). One of her most famous journal articles, was the piece "You just don't understand" (International Studies Quarterly (1997) 41, 611-632) which berated mainstream international relations theorists (such as Robert Keohane) for failing to recognise the critical potential of feminist theory. Whilst mainstream scholars like Keohane argued for feminists to develop scientific, testifiable theories, Tickner argued this missed the point. Most feminist IR theory takes a stongly deconstructivist approach to knowledge arguing that theories reflect the gendered social positioning of their authors - they therefore attacked positivist ('scientific') methods for obscuring the gendered politics of knowledge construction.

J Ann Tickner is currently president of the International Studies Association (ISA). Whilst she is not the first female president of the ISA, she is the first feminist IR theorist to head the ISA.

She was married to Hayward Alker until his death in 2007.