Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Her feminist teaching and research explore the interplay of gendered politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s work is made cheap in globalised factories and how women’s emotional and physical labour has been used to support many governments’ war-waging policies—and how diverse women have tried to resist both of those efforts. Racial, class, ethnic and national identity dynamics, as well as ideas about femininities and masculinities, are common threads throughout her studies.
Cynthia Enloe’s most recent book is The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging the Persistence of Patriarchy, published by Myriad in October 2017. She is the author of many others, including: Does Khaki Become You?; Bananas, Beaches and Bases; Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives; The Curious Feminist; and Globalization and Militarism. She is co-author of The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States with Joni Seager.
Her career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, guest professorships in Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as lectures in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Portugal, Chile, Vietnam, Korea, Colombia, Bosnia, Turkey, and at universities around the USA. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Icelandic and German. She has published in Ms. Magazine and The Village Voice, and appeared on National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, C-Span and the BBC.
She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Union College (2005), the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (2009), Connecticut College (2010), the University of Lund, Sweden (2012), Clark University (2014) and the University of Iceland (2020).
Cynthia Enloe was awarded the International Studies Association’s Susan Strange Award in 2007, in recognition of ‘a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and organizational complacency in the international studies community during the previous year.’ In 2008, she was awarded the Susan B. Northcutt Award, presented annually by the Women’s Caucus for International Studies, of the International Studies Association, to recognize ‘a person who actively works toward recruiting and advancing women and other minorities in the profession, and whose spirit is inclusive, generous and conscientious.’ She has been awarded Clark University’s Outstanding Teacher Award three times.
In 2010, Cynthia Enloe was awarded the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award. The American Council of Learned Societies awarded Cynthia its Charles Haskins Award in 2016.
Cynthia currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of International Feminist Journal of Politics, Security Dialogue, Women, Politics and Policy, International Political Sociology, Critical Military Studies, and Politics and Gender. She is a member of WILPF’s International Academic Network.