InterpolAber

Congratulations to Assala Khettache, who passed her PhD viva yesterday. Dr Khettache delivered an impressive and confident defence of her thesis “When the Mercenary Plays the Liberator: Wagner Group and the Weaponisation of Collective Moral Injury in Africa”. The examiners, Dr Sarah Jenkins (University of Galway) and Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Aberystwyth University) (pictured below), praised Assala’s PhD thesis for demonstrating exceptional knowledge and considerable command of a complex and fascinating subject. Congratulations also to her supervisors Dr Jan Ruzicka (pictured below) and Dr Jenny Mathers (who was teaching when the photos were being taken). Now Assala is off to start a 2 year Post Doctoral Fellowship at St Antony's College, Oxford, with Professor Rita Abrahamsen, a former colleague in the department.

Last week was welcome week - the first week of the new academic year, and it was filled with welcome and welcome back events and meetings, including prize givings for returning second and third year students for excellent work carried out last academic year, a panel of third year students offering advice to freshers, receptions for new undergraduate and postgraduate students, and as usual, ending the week with a roundtable with members of the department commenting on a topical and thought-provoking question, in conversation with our students.

Emeritus Professor Colin McInnes spoke to the Rotary Club in London on the International Day of Peace (21 September) on the topic of ‘Reasons to be Cheerful: The Prospects for Peace’.

Congratulations to Visiting Fellow Dr Ahmad Umar on the publication of his latest article, "Beyond 'Middle Power': Postcolonial Liminality and the Social Construction of Indonesia's Foreign Policy" in International Journal: Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis"

journals.sagepub.com

Congratulations to our colleague Dr Andrew Davenport, whose book, Capital and the International: On the Dialectic of Value and Sovereignty, is published today by Bristol University Press!

Ritu Vij at the University of Aberdeen, describes it as: ‘A path-breaking work that transforms our understanding of the modern world-system by demonstrating the logical connection between capital and the international’.

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/capital-and-the-international

Last weekend a macrame model made by Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara was part of an exhibition in London. The model, which reflects on the research process of the (Un-)Stitching Gazes project in Colombia) is part of the Textile Intersections exhibition at Imperial College London. The exhibition and conference explore cutting edge textile research through the overarching theme of ‘Material Intelligence’: the various ways textile knowledge critically manifests itself in relation to textile technology, textile thinking and textile practices.
https://www.textile-intersections.com/exhibition/

Many congratulations to Dr Llŷr ab Einion, the latest Interpol PhD student to pass his viva! His thesis, titled Grym a Chredoau mewn Cysylltiadau Rhynglywodraethol (Power and Beliefs in Intergovernmental Relations) was supervised by Elin Royles and Huw Lewis and was examined by Angharad Closs Stephens (Swansea University) and our own Anwen Elias. His thesis and the defence were thorough, thoughtful, well-argued, rigorous, engaging and original.

Wonderful news for a wet Friday afternoon!

Last week (7-9 September) our Head of Department, Dr Alistair Shepherd, attended the annual conference of UACES (University Association for Contemporary European Studies) at Charles University in Prague. He presented a paper entitled "Twin Threats: European Strategic Autonomy and Strategic Culture in the face of Trump and Putin" and chaired two other panels on European security - one of European Defence industry and one on different modes of cooperation in European security.

Congratulations to our colleague Dr Hannah Hughes, who has published a policy brief for a United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) special forum on science-policy interfaces. In it, she examines participation as the fundamental building block to producing a shared knowledge base for facilitating collective action. Starting with participation reveals the importance of: 1) diverse stakeholders; 2) diverse knowledges and perspectives and 3) support to enable this participation. It also indicates some of the politics that are likely to be produced and that this focus on participation may have the potential to constrain.

Participation is the Fundamental Building Block in Science-Policy Interface Design Meaningful participation is the foundation for building science-policy interfaces that produce shared knowledge and enable collective action.

On 9 September our colleague Dr. Ahmad Umar organised a hybrid seminar about Indo-Pacific Research, with a focus on European transregional engagement in the region. The speakers included Professor Poppy S. Winanti from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, who presented her paper on EU-Indonesia trade relations and Dr. Umar, who presented his postdoctoral research on transregionalism in world politics. Dr. Hannah Hughes and Dr. Lewis Birley acted as discussants, and around 36 participants attended the forum online.