Feminist International Relations, Simmons University, Spring 2026
How do gender and feminism shape international politics, international security, political economy, and transnational activism? What becomes visible when International Relations is analyzed through feminist and gendered lenses, and what dominant theories and practices are destabilized in the process? This course introduces Feminist International Relations to examine how gender, sexuality, race, class, and colonial legacies structure power, violence, and resistance at the international level. Gender is treated both as a category of analysis and as a social and political process through which meanings are assigned to bodies. Building on gender and feminist IR scholarship, this course engages with debates on militarization and war, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, feminist security studies, global political economy, migration, global governance, and transnational feminist and anti-feminist activism. Students critically examine how States, international organizations, NGOs, and social movements reproduce and contest gendered power relations in different areas (e.g., peace negotiations, security agendas, global care chains, sexual and reproductive rights, and so on). This course brings to the center of the debate feminist methodological and epistemological interventions, emphasizing positionality and the normative commitments of feminist IR. Through engagement with classic and contemporary texts, you will learn to apply feminist theoretical frameworks to cases in international politics, critically assess policy and governance outcomes, and articulate feminist analyses in both written and oral forms. The course culminates in student paper presentations and submission of original research.
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring 2025
What is gender? What are gender relations? How does gender shape contemporary and historical debates, events, social problems, and our relationships? In a society deeply marked by gender differences, how can we observe gender dynamics where they may seem invisible? How can we critically interpret gender-related realities and envision ways to move beyond an oppressive gender order (that is usually also marked by racist and classist ideologies)? In this course, we explore gender as both a category of analysis and a social expression of how society assigns meaning to human bodies. Drawing from multiple disciplines—literature, history, economics, psychology, philosophy, political science, international relations, anthropology, media studies, and the arts—this course also challenges cultural assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. With a focus on foundational readings and contemporary literature and topics, the course is structured into three main sections and seven different units. First, we discuss introductory concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS), including “gender,” “oppression,” and “intersectionality.” We also examine WGS as an academic and activist field shaped by a normative commitment to ending gender-related oppression in our society. Second, based on literature from different fields, we explore how these concepts connect with the five main units of the class: “Gender, Sexualities, and Social Identities,” “Gender, Society, and Work,” “Contemporary Topics Related to Gender,” “Topics on Gender-Related Oppression,” and “Gender, Politics, and Resistance.” Finally, in the last section, students will present their third essay, marking the conclusion of the course.
Gender & Technology: Transnational Activisms on Reproductive Rights, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fall 2024
Reproductive rights are subject to global political disputes. These disputes involve transnational actors and networks that connect different scales, contexts, and struggles from the local to the international level and vice versa. In this course, we will focus on transnational activists fighting both for and against reproductive rights worldwide, with a specific focus on technology. As our framework of analysis, we will explore the international relations literature about how non-state actors diffuse ideas, beliefs, and practices through transnational networks and technology. This is a course for students from different fields of study who want to develop analytical tools to analyze transnational activism, reproductive politics, technology, countermovements, and feminist movements. One of our main objectives will be to understand the strategies, tactics, and demands of transnational feminist movements and counter-movements regarding abortion rights and how they influence the reproductive rights agenda on the international and national scales. We will specifically approach how technology has been leveraged by various groups, influencing the fast transnational coordination and spread of norms about abortion at the beginning of the 21st century. We will explore how different stakeholders, such as religious actors, human rights activists, and health workers, have utilized technology to disseminate ideas about abortion on both national and international scales. We will focus particularly on how data activism and digital activism are employed to coordinate and disseminate transnational demands related to reproductive rights. The first part of the course is focused on understanding international relations theory in relation to technology, transnational feminisms, and their countermovements. In the second part of the course, we will apply the theory we learned to specific case studies related to reproductive rights. Finally, we will approach the case studies, and in the last week, each student will present their own research related to the subject of the course.
Previous Teaching Positions
| Adjunct Faculty Feminist International Relations Simmons University, USA | Spring 2026 |
| Adjunct Teaching Faculty Social Sciences Research Methods Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), USA | Fall 2025 |
| Lecturer (Postdoctoral Associate) Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies Gender and Technology: Transnational Activisms on Reproductive Rights Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA | Spring 2025 Fall 2024 |
| Teaching Internship (Teaching Certificate) World History Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, USA | Spring 2022 |
| Teaching Assistant International Security Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil Undergraduate course | Mar 2019 Jul 2019 |
| Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Human Rights and International Human Mobility International Public Law Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil Undergraduate courses | Mar 2016 Dec 2016 |
| Instructor Topics in International Relations Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil Preparatory Course | Mar 2016 Dec 2017 |
Other resources
I have concluded the Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the fall of 2024.
In 2022, I also finished a two-year Pedagogical Degree for Bachelors (Teaching Certificate) at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology (IFSUL) in Brazil.
Alessandra Jungs de Almeida 