The Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture 2025

Prof Shirin M. Rai, SOAS, University of London, 'Depletion: the human costs of caring'

Prof Shirin M. Rai is Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Rai’s research interests lie in feminist international political economy, performance and politics, and gender and political institutions. She has published widely in these areas in journals such as World Development, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Signs, Social Politics, European Journal of Politics and Gender, Review of International Studies and New Political Economy. Her books include Gender and the Political Economy of Development (Polity, 2004) Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament (with Carole Spary; OUP), 2019; Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance (2021; co-eds M Gluhovic, S Jestrovic and M Saward). Her latest book is Depletion: the human costs of caring (2024, OUP), Depletion was awarded the Susan Strange Best Book Prize by BISA in 2025.

The Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture represents Politics and International Relations as an established and distinguished discipline at Queen’s University Belfast. The lecture showcases cutting edge research by world-leading scholars and practitioners whose expertise is widely disseminated and prominent in public discourses worldwide. In doing so it highlights their ground-breaking research and global engagement for the benefit of Queen’s students and staff, the wider Northern Ireland community and a global audience.

The Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture series is generously supported by the R M Jones Memorial Lecture Fund.