“Don’t Be Cynical”: University of St Andrews Awards Professor Cynthia Enloe with Honorary Degree

On Tuesday 1 July 2025, during the 2 pm graduation ceremony for the School of International Relations and BA Honours programmes, renowned feminist scholar and activist Professor Cynthia Enloe received an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) degree from the University of St Andrews.

Professor Enloe, 86, has spent her long-term career making major and lasting contributions to feminist theory and practice in global politics. Through her books, teaching, and activism, Professor Enloe consistently challenges the notion that war and politics are gender-neutral. Most famous is her landmark Bananas, Beaches and Bases, which investigates how women’s lives and labour intersect with global military bases, tourism, and international trade.

Her work reveals how global power structures are shaped by deeply embedded assumptions about gender, bringing attention to the often-overlooked roles women play in the academic field.

Introducing the honorary graduand at the ceremony, Professor Anthony Lang of the School of International Relations described her as “a scholar and teacher of International Relations who has brought her feminist curiosity to the multiple forms of militarism that shape our global system.”

With 15 books and a wide-reaching body of work, translated into languages including Ukrainian, Japanese, Turkish, and Chinese, Professor Lang said Professor Enloe has earned “a reputation as the most important feminist thinker in International Relations.”

When she visited St Andrews in 2017 to deliver the School’s Distinguished Scholar lecture, Professor Enloe spent two full days meeting with staff and students alike. Her talk — delivered without notes — took place “in the midst of the first administration of the United States President Donald Trump” and offered “hope for how we might see the role of the United States differently” through the lens of feminist curiosity.

The honorary graduate took the stage with humility, delivering a speech directly to the graduating cohort. She urged them, “Don’t be afraid,” and to resist the pressure to suppress themselves to fit into a world that often rewards conformity.

“People are going to really encourage you to shrink your understanding of who you are,” she told the audience, adding, “They’re going to call it making a good career move. But they are asking you not to be a true citizen of the world. Don’t be tempted. Don’t.”

After the ceremonial procession, Professor Enloe spoke exclusively to The Saint about what the day meant to her. For the feminist scholar, it was the graduates themselves who made the day truly meaningful.

“You know what’s the best, Maria?” she said. “It’s that the students were there, that’s the best … that’s the only reason you do what you do.” She added: “You really do it because people read you, or listen to you, and they talk back to you.”

When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Enloe emphasised the importance of remaining open to unfamiliar perspectives. 

Reflecting on her time working with activists abroad, she said: “Make sure you stay curious about the things that you don’t understand in other people's lives.” She recalled meeting Turkish feminists in Istanbul and the humility it required. “I don’t get it,” she admitted. “I don’t know what it’s like to live under an autocratic regime … and so I have to really listen.”

“Try to understand the things you really don’t understand at first.”

Professor Enloe’s globally influential idea of ‘feminist curiosity’ isn’t reserved only for academics. She explained how she writes with a wide audience in mind, deliberately avoiding complicated jargon and carefully considering how her words resonate with readers. 

Publishing beyond academic circles helps her stay accountable; “I think, what would people write in the margins, and what matters to them?” She continued, “If they’re reading what I am writing, they’re taking their own time, and that is precious.”

“I want to be useful. I think that’s the most important thing — I want to be useful.”

Professor Enloe’s parting message to The Saint was powerful and resolute — a call to graduates determined to make real change in the world: “Don’t be cynical,” she urged. “Do not be cynical. Because cynical means you withdraw, and if you withdraw, They — capital T — win.”

Photos by Manraj Gill