Linda Racioppi

Professor and Associate Dean

Faculty, Staff

Case Hall Room S359
842 Chestnut Rd
East Lansing, MI 48825
racioppi@msu.edu

BIOGRAPHY

Ph.D., University of Maryland; Government and Politics
Professor

Linda Racioppi is a professor in the Comparative Cultures and Politics and International Relations fields. She is also an Associate Dean of James Madison College. She previously served as interim director of the University’s Center for Asian Studies as well as its director of special projects and strategic partnerships, as well as interim dean of James Madison College. Professor Racioppi’s training lies in the fields of comparative politics and international relations. Her current research and teaching have focused on gender, power, and international development; women’s grassroots organizing; ethnicity, nationalism, and ethnic conflict; and disaster studies. In 1991, Racioppi was awarded a Lilly Teaching Fellowship; in 1994, she was named MSU Teacher-Scholar; in 2005, she received the MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award; and in 2012, the Ralph H. Smuckler Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs at MSU. Professor Racioppi is the author of Soviet Policy Towards South Asia Since 1970 (Cambridge University Press, 1994), co-author with Professor Katherine O’Sullivan See of Women’s Activism in Contemporary Russia (Temple University Press, 1997). She co-edited Gender Politics in Post-Communist Eurasia (Michigan State University Press, 2009) with Katherine O’Sullivan See, and Women and Disasters in South Asia: Survival, Security, and Development (Taylor and Francis, 2016) with Swarna Rajagopalan. She has published articles and book chapters on Soviet arms transfers, women and Russian nationalism, women’s organizing in Russia, gender and ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland, gender and James Bond films, women and agriculture, agriculture and rural development in conflict zones, and interdisciplinarity; and she has also edited an occasional paper series on civil-military relations. Her current research focuses on women’s livelihoods on Sri Lankan tea estates and in Indian fishing villages.

NEWS

Linda Racioppi has won the Ralph H. Smuckler Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs. Professor Racioppi's nomination was supported by both the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and James Madison College for her accomplishments and working collaboratively across the university to advance international studies.

Linda Racioppi and Katie See co-edited "Gender Politics in Post-Communist Eurasia," published by MSU Press. Reflecting on two decades of experience, "Gender Politics in Post-Communist Eurasia" offers new and important insights into contemporary global gender politics by leading scholars from Central Asia, Europe, and the United States - into the contemporary dynamics of gender politics in a critical area of the world.

Linda Racioppi and Kate See organized a workshop on "Gender and Politics in Post-Communist Eurasia." The workshop was held at Koc University, Istanbul, in June, and brought together leading scholars from Russia, Central Asia, Turkey, Europe and the United States to explore significant aspects of gender politics in the post-communist period. Participants included Ayse Ayata (Middle East Technical University), Mary Buckley (Cambridge University), Eleonora Faizullaeva (Uzbek State World Languages University), Timur Kocaoglu (Koc University), Eniko Magyari Vincze (Babes-Bolyai University), Nadezhda Shvedova (USA-Canada Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences), Zulaikho Usmanova (Khujand State University), and Madison graduate, Amanda Sloat (National Democratic Institute, Washington DC). Papers took up such issues as human trafficking, the impact of EU accession on women in Eastern Europe, the interplay of ethnicity and gender in public policy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the gender effects of labor migration in Central Asia, the interaction between state-based women's organizing and international feminist activism. Professors See and Racioppi will be editing the papers and writing an introductory essay for a volume that will be published by MSU Press.

In collaboration with Colleen Tremonte, Linda Racioppi's article, "At the Interstices: Post-colonial Literary Studies Meets International Relations," will be published in Pedagogy. Details to come.

Linda Racioppi and Colleen Tremonte presented a paper, "International Relations Meets English Studies: Collaborative Learning in the International Relations Classroom," at the American Political Science Association Annual Teaching and Learning Conference in Washington, D.C., February 18-21.

Linda Racioppi received a fellowship from the American Council on Sri Lanka to support hers and Katie See’s work on women in protracted ethnic conflicts entitled"Protracted Ethnic Conflict and the Politics of Women's Mobilization."

Professors Linda Racioppi and Katie See co-authored an article, "Engendering Democratic Transition from Conflict: Women's Inclusion in Northern Ireland's Peace Process," which was published in the January 2006 issue of Comparative Politics.

Linda Racioppi and Katie See will be presenting a paper on "Women's Political Mobilization in Ethnic Conflicts" at the annual meeting of the Mid-West Political Science Association in Chicago this April.

With the support of the College and the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Linda Racioppi and Katie See are coordinating a workshop to be held this summer (June 28-30) at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. The workshop "Gender and Transitions in Post-communist Societies" will bring together leading scholars from Europe, the U.S. and Eurasia to examine both case studies that address women’s political, economic and social positions and activism in particular societies and regional/transnational analyses on such matters as EU accession, ethnic and religious conflict and mobilizations, and human trafficking Among the participants will be JMC alum, Amanda Sloat.

Professor Racioppi (and Professor See) presented a paper, "Springing into Politics? How Have Women Been Engaged in the Renewal of Democracy in Northern Ireland?" at the Annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association (Chicago, April 2005).