Orientations as a 3-dimensional tool for practising positionality in international law

Abstract

This conversation draws on Sara Ahmed’s work on queer phenomenology and orientations to engage in a reflection about positionality in the work of international lawyers. The paper starts by discussing how we have come to think about positionality, before attempting to apply the four characteristics of Ahmed’s model of orientation, perception, arrival, doing things and inhabiting spaces, to our own object of research. Finally, we explore the value of disorientation in our research, followed by some afterthoughts. As we try to portray a more complex and nuanced depiction of our own positionality, we eventually sketch the contour lines of a three- dimensional tool for conceiving positionality in international legal research. Through this tool, positionality is understood as the relationship between the researcher and their object of study in the space of international law.