The Elephant in the Room

This article examines the author’s experiences incorporating race into International Relations (IR) classes. The central argument is that keeping race at the margins of IR teaching and research contributes to students’ perceptions of race as irrelevant to the discipline and has led students to question the professionalism of professors who include race, racism, and the like in classroom readings and discussions. Until race is moved to the center and engaged in IR’s teaching and research agendas, underrepresented students and professors might continue to choose to find a home in other academic disciplines.