J. Marshall Beier, PhD is Professor of Political Science at McMaster University, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Critical Studies on Security, and Series Editor for Palgrave Studies in International Relations.

His teaching and research interests turn on the constitution of and contestation around political subjecthood. Much of this is rooted in critical international relations and security studies through postcolonial, poststructuralist, feminist, and childhood-informed approaches. Established and ongoing areas of inquiry deal with intersections of childhoods and militarism, issues of children’s rights and political subjecthood across various settings, visual and affective economies of children in abject circumstances, and imagined childhood as a technology of global governance. Other interests include issues of human security, weapons proliferation, arms control, and disarmament. As a 3M National Teaching Fellow and member of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, he is also interested in pedagogy both in practice and as an area of research focus. He is active with and serves on the Faculty Advisory Committee of the McMaster Children and Youth University and carries out research on other such initiatives outside of North America. He has also conducted research on indigeneity in advanced settler colonial contexts, exploring tensions between Indigenous discourses of global politics and varied attempts by Indigenous people(s) to make their voices heard in the established international system and its attendant institutions.

He is currently leading a multi-year project on the militarization of childhood and another on children’s rights and social/political participation. Among the outputs of the first project are an edited volume (reprinted in a paperback edition) and special issues of the journals Critical Studies on Security and Childhood. The second project deals with impediments to children’s exercise of rights both in local contexts and in connection with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, contributions from which include several articles in refereed journals. Related research considers issues of children’s political subjecthood with particular emphasis on questions of responsibility pertaining to trauma visited on young people both within and beyond zones of conflict.

Drawing on insights from his theoretical work, the balance of his research agenda is marked by an interest in offering new perspectives on contemporary security issues. Projects in this vein have focused variously on ballistic missile defence, the movement to ban antipersonnel landmines, the ‘Revolution in Military Affairs,’ and emergent autonomous weapon systems.

© 2024 J. Marshall Beier