Cristina Masters

I joined the Department of Politics at Manchester in September 2006, prior to which I held a lectureship in the Department of Politics and a sessional lectureship in Women Studies at McMaster University in Canada. I completed my PhD at York University in Toronto, Canada, where I also received a MA Postgraduate Diploma in Security Studies. My teaching qualifications include: International Relations Theory, Women & Politics, and Political Theory. I am also a member of the BISA Gender and International Relations Working Group, and a member of the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies, and the International Studies Association.

My research focusses on making feminist sense of practices of war with special attention to the US military and the role of technology in war and more recently practices of everyday war in the ongoing war on terror and its various and violent embodiments. The questions that primarily drive my research are: what war practices does gender and difference make possible? My research is also situated in non-structural theories of international politics and challenges to dominant ways of knowing and being in the world in which we currently live. Currently, I am working on collaborative project with Dr. Linda Åhäll (Keele) on misogyny and global politics. 

Current Phd Students

Sofia Doyle (2018-). Staff to Student Sexual Violence in the Academy: Everyday Insecurity, Everyday Resistance (ESRC Scholarship).

Jennifer Hobbs (2016-). What is the relationship between bodily fluids and practices of (in)security? (SoSS studentship).

Michanne Steenbergen (2015-). Empowerment, Marginalization & Post-Conflict Security Practices: Female Ex-Combatants in Nepal and Liberia (SoSS studentship).

Rahima Siddique (2015-). Masculinities and Radicalization: A Critical Inquiry into Gender, Violence and Extremism in the radicalization process(SoSS studentship)

Completed PhD

Robert William Palmer (2012-2017). Awarded A(i) Twenty-First Century Celebrations of the British Armed Forces: The Rise of the Biopolitical Military Professional (SoSS studentship).

Thomas Tyerman (2012-2016). Awarded A(i) Border struggles: segregation, migrant solidarity, and ethical politics in everyday life (ESRC studentship and Presidential Scholarship Award).

Rachel Massey. (2011-2015) Awarded B(i) ‘Leaky Bodies’: Critical Reflections on contemporary framings of conflict based sexual violence in Congo (DRC) (ESCR studentship).

Susannah O’Sullivan (2010-2014). Awarded A(i) Space and time in liberal peace building and intervention (ESRC studentship).

Kathryn Starnes (2008-2015). Awarded A(i) Fairy Tales, Textbooks and Social Science: A folklorist reading of international relations introductory textbooks (thesis nominated for a BISA prize).

Linsay Cunningham-Cross. (2008-2013) Awarded A(ii) In search of a Chinese School: Ghostly encounters with the parochial/global discipline of international relations (ESRC studentship).

Julia Welland (2009-2013). Awarded A(ii) Masculinity and Violence in the British Military: Liberal Warriors and Haunted Soldiers (ESRC studentship).

Turki Alawi (2007-2013). Awarded B(iii) Saudi Foreign Policy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Secondary supervisor with Dr. Peter Lawler from September 2007, self-funded).

Gérman Prieto Corredor (2009-2013). Awarded A(ii) The Explanatory Role of Collective Identity and Regional Institutions in the Unfolding of the ANDEAN Community: Contributions and Limitations of a Constructivist Analysis.

Thomas Gregory (2007-2011). Awarded A(ii) Women and Agency in the War on Terror (SoSS studentship).

Pinkerton, Patrick, Awarded A(ii) Biopolitics, Temporality and the International Presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESRC studentship).

Academic Invitations to External Lectures and Department Seminars

“Feeling War,” Feeling War, PAIS, University of Warwick, May 10^th, 2017.

“Criticality in Feminist Politics,” Department of Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University, October 14^th, 2016.

“Getting Intimate to Rethink International Politics,” A Workshop on the intimate and V. Spike Peterson, Politics, University of Manchester, September 21^st, 2016.

“Scenes of Empathy: Sensuous spectatorship, post-9/11 war films and everyday participation in liberal war,” PAIS Seminar Series, University of Warwick, February 24^th, 2016.

“Forget Biopolitics,” Oxford Brookes research seminar series, Department of Social Sciences, March 17^th, 2015.

Paper Presentations

“A feminist goes to a war museum with her parents: on the intimacies of war and becoming feminist,” Militarization, Militarism and Feminism: Rethinking interrelations and contradictions workshop, June 30^th, 2018, Vienna, Austria.

“#afeministsaiditfirst: Wilful Omissions, Mansplaining IR, Feminist Killjoys,” 7^th Annual Conference, International Feminist Journal of Politics, April 3^rd, 2018, San Francisco, USA.

“Reflections on life, living, and resistance: A feminist call to ‘forget’ biopolitics in IR,” 11^th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, EISA, September 16^th, 2017, Barcelona, Spain.

“Making feminist sense of the interface: gender, technology & war,” 11^th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, EISA, September 15^th, 2017, Barcelona, Spain.

“White Women, Saving White Men and Brown Women, from Brown Men?: The Gendered & Raced Politics of Violence,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 6^th Annual Conference, South Asian University, April 10^th, 2017, New Delhi, India.

“The Future of Sexual Violence,” (co-presented with Marysia Zalewski) 9^th Pan-European Conference on International Relations: Worlds of Violence, EISA, September 25^th, 2015, Sicily, Italy.

“Forget Biopolitics,” 56^th Annual International Studies Association Conference, February 21^st, 2015, New Orleans, USA.

“Zero Dark Thirty & the Sensuous Politics of Spectating War,” 56^th Annual International Studies Association Conference, February 20^th, 2015, New Orleans, USA.

“Kill(able) Subjects and Complex Embodiments in Drone Warfare: MAMs, Patterns of Life & Signature Strikes,”55^th Annual International Studies Association Conference, March 29^th, 2014, Toronto, Canada.

Roudtable Presentations

“Cataloguing Frankenstinian Subjects in IR: Cyborg, Perverse, Ventriloquized,” with Marysia Zalewski, Shine Choi, Swati Parashar, Michelle Brown, Saara Särmä, 57^th Annual International Studies Association Conference, April 5^th, 2018, San Francisco, USA.

"How Inappropriate! Exploring Boundaries of Disciplinary Performances,” with Marysia Zalewski, Laura McLeod, Swati Parashar, Shine Choi, Michelle Brown, Saara Särmä at the 57th Annual International Studies Association Conference, March 18th, 2016, Atlanta, USA.

“Presidential Theme Panel - Feminist International Relations Today: Transformation In Action,” with Marysia Zalewski, Swati Parashar, Laura McLeod, and V. Spike Peterson at the 56^th Annual International Studies Association Conference, February 21^st, 2015, New Orleans, USA.

“Sex, Gender, Desire, Violence” a workshop with Maria Stern, Paul Higate, Paul Kirby, Marysia Zalewski, Marsha Henry, Robin May Schott, Maria Malmstrom, Maria Eriksson Baaz, and Chris Dolan at the Centre for Globalisation and Development, Gothenburg Univeristy, Sweden, June 9-10^th, 2014.*

“Feminism and Its Crisis’, with Julia Welland, Claire Lyness, Same Cook, Rosalie Clark, at the International Feminist Journal of Politics 3^rd Annual Conference, University of Southern California, May 9^th, 2014, LA, USA.

“Consuming Feminisms?: A Critical (Re)engagement of the Relationship between Feminisms and Capitalisms,” with Marysia Zalewski, Terrell Carver, Georgina Waylen, and Shirin Rai at the Political Studies Association Annual Conference, April 15^th, 2014, Manchester, UK.

“(More) Dead Bodies and More Theories (and methodologies): Is it time for Gaga Feminism in IR?” with Marysia Zalewski, Megan Daigle, Laura McLeod at the Political Studies Association Annual Conference, April 15^th, 2014, Manchester, UK.