Beyond the trodden paths of IR: Using London as a site of learning international politics

This paper discusses my experiences in leading students out of the classroom to highlight everyday political practices and material structures of (in)security. Over the last years, I have developed several ‘London walks’ as practice elements of my teaching and integrated them into my postgraduate modules on IR theory and Foreign Policy Analysis. I take students to different sites of security in the city, for instance, the new US embassy in Nine Elms, situating this building and its surrounding space in larger processes of post-War on Terror infrastructure design, defensive architecture, surveillance, and related debates in Critical Security Studies. By organising events like the London walks, or visits to different sites like museums, I literally take students off the trodden paths of mainstream International Relations. These walks exemplify how critical research on security and governance can be integrated in postgraduate teaching in a way that builds on the diversity of backgrounds and experiences in the classroom. The paper reports on the pedagogical rationale of such activities and discusses practical considerations in planning and conducting them. I argue that the security walks can enhance research-focused learning by integrating students’ lived experiences and relating at times abstract concepts to their personal environment.