03 VITAE

DOC 2026-06/2

San Francisco, 2024

EDUCATION

Ph.D., University of Minnesota

expected 2027

M.Sc. SOAS, University of London

2020

B.A., Willamette University

2014

PEER-REVIEWED WRITING

On Becoming an Expert, Journal of Narrative Politics 8(1). Available at this clickable link.

2021

The ICC in the Central African Republic: Phantom State, Phantom Justice, infojustice.net.

2020

TEACHING
*syllabus on request

POL 3835: International Relations Theory*
instructor

2026

POL 3309: The American Presidency
reader-grader

2023

POL 3319: Education and the American Dream
reader-grader

2022

POL 3835: International Relations Theory
reader-grader

2022

POL 3810: The Laws of War in International Politics
reader-grader

2021

POL 4810: Night Raids, Detention, Torture & Drones: Methods of War
reader-grader

2021

TEACHING CERTS

Preparing Future Faculty: Teaching for Learning Summer Institute, University of Minnesota

2026

Fundamentals of Disability Accommodation and Inclusive Course Design, University of Minnesota

2025

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

"Resistance consciousness and the people’s tribunal, 1945-1990," in Marxism and Sociology, "Genocide and Imperialism" Disrupting the Status Quo: Putting Sociologists to Work for a More Equitable Society, ASA (New York City, NY): 4 August 2026. *forthcoming

"How the State gets away with (mass) murder" in International Law and Politics Working Group, "Atrocities and the Architecture of Global Accountability." Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions, BISA (Brighton, UK): 4 July 2026.

"A People’s Court: Alternative Visions of Responsibility for Genocide" in Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Working Group, "New Visions of Justice." Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions, BISA (Brighton, UK): 4 July 2026.

"Prosecuting Genocide: The People versus the U.N." in "Alternative Frameworks for Peace: The International Community, Humanitarian Interventions and Negotiations." Back to Fundamentals: Rethinking Knowledges, Practices, and Imaginaries of the World, ISA (Columbus, OH): 24 March 2026.

"How to get away with mass murder" in "Afterlives of Empire: Colonial Legacies and Postcolonial Struggles." Back to Fundamentals: Rethinking Knowledges, Practices, and Imaginaries of the World, ISS=A (Columbus, OH): 25 March 2026.

"The Politics of Responsibility at the Permanent People’s Tribunal" in "Global Conventions and Transnational Practice Networks." 'Vladimir STOP!' - New and Emergent Global Vernaculars, ISA-NE (Providence, RI): 8 November 2025.

"Emails People Send Me About Genocide" in Storytelling and Ethics, "Storytelling for a Broken World." International Rela_[404 Not Found]: Politics for a Broken World, Pan-European Conference, EISA. (Bologna, IT): 3 August 2025.

"Emails People Send Me about Genocide: The Political Craft of Epistemic Violence" in "Responses to Atrocity: Narratives, law, and global divides." Reconnecting International Relations, ISA (Chicago, IL): 3 March 2025.

"Schemes of subjection: how to do things with feeling(s)" in "Constructing A New Legal World Order based on Equality and Responsibility: Emerging Transnational Legality, Regime Overlap, and Rule Negotiation." Reconnecting International Relations, ISA. (Chicago, IL): 2 March 2025.

"Emails people send me about genocide: the political craft of 'liberal humanitarian' violence" in "Mass Crimes, International Trials and Accountability." Sites of Global Politics" Past, Present and Future, ISA-NE (Baltimore, MD): 9 November 2024.

"Ghostly Matters and the (Settler) Coloniality of International Justice for Genocide" in Law and variations of (il)liberal state violence, "Rethinking the Nexus Between Legality and Violence in International Politics." Searching for International Relations: Spaces, Styles, Struggles, PEC EISA (Lille, FR): 31 August 2024.

"Algorhythmic violence, responsibility / culpability." Partition / Non-partition, Centre for Humanities Research Winter School in the Humanities, UWC (Cape Town, SA): 8-11 August 2023.

"Phantom States (of Being): When Justice Haunts" in "State - and Order Making: Law, Constitution, and International Criminal Justice." Putting Relationality at the Centre of International Studies, ISA (San Francisco, CA): 5 April 2024.

Zeerak, Nasema and Manion, Megan. "Storytelling as/is Epistemic Violence: Imperial Shortcuts to Producing Knowledge About Afghanistan" in "Feminist Peace Studies." Specters of International Relations, ISA-NE (Providence, RI): 3 November 2023.

"Phantom States (of Being): When Justice Haunts" in "Stories of Battles Lost." Specters of International Relations, ISA-NE (Providence, RI): 3 November 2023.

"Storytelling is/as Epistemic Violence." Remapping the Critical: Imagining Anti-Hierarchical Futures, Millennium Symposium (London, UK): 19-20 October 2023.*accepted for publication in Millennium (Vol. 52).

"Politics of Accountability: A Genealogy of Individual Criminal Responsibility" in "International Criminal Justice." Real Struggles, High Stakes: Cooperation, Contention, and Creativity, ISA (Montreal, CA): 15-18 March 2023.*withdrawn: health emergency

Chou, Sutina and Manion, Megan. "What is Positivism’s Problem? Distancing Mechanisms in Pedagogies of International Relations" in "Critical Methodologies." Imagining World Futures: Exploring Alternative Visions of International Studies and World Politics in the Next 20 to 200 Years, ISA-NE (Baltimore, MD): 4-5 November 2022.

"Phantom Justice: the ICC and the Central African Republic" in "What Happens After a Conflict?" A Wider Discipline For A Smaller World, ISA (Nashville, TN): 29 March 2022.

"Phantom Statehood: Conceding Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Responsibility in the Central African Republic" in "State governance and conflict management." A Wider Discipline For A Smaller World, ISA (Nashville, TN): 31 March April 2022.

panel chair

"The Complexities of Justice in Transitional Societies." Reconnecting International Relations, International Studies Assoc. (Chicago, IL): 5 March 2025.

"Unspoken Practice in International Law: Controversies and Perspectives." Reconnecting International Relations, International Studies Assoc. (Chicago, IL): 4 March 2025.

roundtable

"International relations as if people matter." A Wider Discipline For A Smaller World, International Studies Assoc. (Nashville, TN) 29 March 2022.

WORKSHOPS AND READING GROUPS

"Schemes of subjection: how to do things with feelings" in Lucy Hall and Jasmine-Kim Westendorf. "Empty promises of protection: intersectional and decolonial conversations on protection." Reconnecting International Relations, EISA (Krakow, PL): 2-4 July 2025.*nominated for best paper award

"Schemes of subjection: settler’s so-called justice" Minnesota International Relations Colloquium, Political Science Department UMN (Minneapolis, MN): 21 October 2024.

Participant, Interpretive and Relational Research Methodology Workshop, ISA-NE (Providence, RI): 4 November 2023.

Zeerak, Nasema and Manion, Megan. "Storytelling as/is Epistemic Violence: Imperial Shortcuts to Producing Knowledge about Afghanistan" in Eliza Randazzo and Simone Tholens. "At War With the Truth: Epistemic Politics, Contestatory Practices and the Co-production of Knowing and Unknowing in Peace and Conflict Studies." Are we doomed? Rethinking war and peace in world politics, EISA (Amsterdam, NL): 12-14 July 2023.

Zeerak, Nasema and Manion, Megan. "Meditations on Care" in Q Manivannan, (De)colonial Care: Place, Practice, Politics, Story, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies University of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, UK): 28 June 2023.*attended online

Participant, Refusing Disposability: Racial and Disability Justice Toward Another World, Critical Disability Studies Collaborative, UMN (Minneapolis, MN): June-July 2022.

Participant, New Directions in Law and Society Workshop, Center for Justice, Law and Societies, University of Massachusetts Amherst (online): 8-9 October 2021.

"Phantom Justice: Command Responsibility in the Central African Republic" Minnesota International Relations Colloquium, Political Science UMN (Minneapolis, MN): 12 October 2020.

FIELD WORK

Rome, Italy (archival research, interviews)
People’s Permanent Tribunal

2025

The Hague, Netherlands (courtroom ethnography)
International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice

2023

AWARDS

A. Dickinson Memorial Fellowship

2026

UMN Human Rights Program Travel Grant

2025

University of Minnesota Doctoral Travel Grant

2024

A. Dickinson Memorial Fellowship

2024

B. Duvall Fellowship

2024

A. Dickinson Memorial Fellowship

2023

Joseph E. Schwartzberg Workable Trust Fellowship

2023

UMN Dissertation Prospectus Development Fellowship

2023

ICGC Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Development Grant

2023

Critical Disability Studies Collective “Refusing Disposibility” Fellowship
Clagett Fellowship

2022

UMN Law School Human Rights Center Fellowship

2021

Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change Mellon Doctoral Fellowship

2020-26

SERVICE

Co-Chair, Political Science Graduate Student Life Committee

2024-25
2021-22

Co-Convenor, Minnesota International Relations Colloquioum

2021-22

Co-Editor in Chief, Reimiagining Peace & Justice

2018-20

Peer Reviewer, International Journal for Transitional Justice

2020-26

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

British International Studies Assoc.

European International Studies Assoc.

International Studies Assoc.

American Sociological Assoc.

LANGUAGES

English

native

French
Spanish

translation

Italian

reading

Arabic (modern standard)
Sango

learning