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.[1] 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 and denying its right to be studied under international relations. Whilst mainstream scholars like Keohane argued that feminists should develop scientific, falsifiable theories, Tickner argued against this assertion, claiming that it misunderstood one of the premises of feminist IR. Most feminist IR theory takes a strongly 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 was president of the International Studies Association (ISA), serving from 2006-2007. Whilst she was not the first female president of the ISA, she was the first feminist IR theorist to head the ISA.
She was married to Hayward Alker until his death in 2007.