Visualising War and Peace

In this episode, Alice interviews Dr Roddy Brett , an expert on political violence and peacebuilding based at the University of Bristol. Roddy’s research looks at the causes and consequences of armed conflict, and how it shapes state institutions and societies more broadly. He also works on conflict resolution and transitional justice, and is the author/co-author of a number of books, including Th...

In this episode Alice and Nicolas interview two University of St Andrews colleagues,  Prof. Anthony Lang Jr of the School of International Relations, and Dr Rory Cox , Senior Lecturer in the School of History. Tony’s research focuses on how politics, law and ethics intersect at the global level, with a particular emphasis on human rights, international obligations and the just war tradition. Rory’...

In this week's episode, Alice interviews award-winning artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox . Kathryn started painting as a child, selling her first piece of art at just 14 years old, winning her first major art competition at 16, and holding her first exhibition at 17. She has since exhibited not just in her native Australia but in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, South Korea, Norway London and New York. Her ar...

In this week's episode, Alice interviews three researchers - Teresa Ó Brádaigh Bean, Lydia Cole, and Azadeh Sobout - who are involved in the Art of Peace project based at the Universities of Manchester and Durham. Led by Oliver Richmond, Stephanie Kappler, and Birte Vogel, this project explores arts-based approaches to peace-making and the role that grassroots-led art projects can play in hel...

In this week's episode, Alice interviews Roberta Bacic, a Chilean collector, curator and Human Rights advocate, about the ‘ Conflict Textiles ‘ collection which she oversees. In 2008, Roberta was involved as guest curator at an exhibition called ‘The Art of Survival’, hosted in Derry-Londonderry. The exhibition was focused on different women’s experiences of survival, and it was inspired in p...

In this week's episode, Alice interviews award-winning artist George Butler . George's art covers a huge range of topics, but he specialises in current affairs and his visual reportage from conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria has won plaudits from the likes of Jeremy Bowen and Michael Morpurgo. George's work often takes him to places which other people are trying to leav...

The Visualising War podcast recently interviewed award-winning photographer Peter van Agtmael . Over a career spanning 20 years, Peter has focused on representing different manifestations of the US at war. His first book, ‘ Disco Night Sept. 11 ’, brought together images of the USA at war in the post-9/11 era, from 2006-2013. His second, ‘ Buzzing at the Sill ’, focused on the US in the shadow of...

In this episode, Alice interviews journalists Margaux Benn and Noorrahman Rahmani , about their experiences of war and peace reporting in Afghanistan. Noorrahman comes from Afghanistan, and he has spent much of the last fifteen years working for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), first as a linguistic, then as a press monitor, and more recently as the IWPR’s Country Director in Afgh...

In this week’s podcast, Alice and Nicolas talk with Dr Thomas Biggs , a lecturer in Latin at the School of Classics at St Andrews, about Roman representations of war, from the beginnings of Latin literature in the third century BCE to the imperial period and beyond. They particularly discuss the impact of Rome's Punic Wars on Roman storytelling habits. Tom is the leading expert on the recepti...

In this episode, Alice talks to Drs Owen Rees and Roel Konijnendijk , two experts on ancient Greek warfare and its enduring influence. Owen has written about both land and sea battles in the ancient world, and his current research focuses on the experiences of soldiers: in particular, how they were prepared for war and how they transitioned back to civilian life afterwards. This has led to wider w...

In this episode, Alice talks to Dr Emily Spiers , who is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Futures at Lancaster University; Dr Will Slocombe , a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and specialist in Science Fiction; and Lt Col Matthew Brown, Chief of Future Concepts and Strategy with the RAF (on loan from the US Air Force). All three have been collaborating on a project, led by Matthew, tha...

In this episode, Alice talks to Prof. Julian Wright , a historian of modern Europe and Head of the Department of Humanities at Northumbria University. Julian specialises in French intellectual, political and cultural history, but more broadly he is fascinated by the idea and experience of time. With colleagues from other disciplines, he has just published a book called Time on a Human Scale: Exper...

This week Alice and Nicolas return to the Imperial War Museum, with the second episode of our mini-series on the recently redesigned WWI, WWII and Holocaust Galleries. Last episode focussed on the WWI Galleries; in this episode we take a closer look at the WWII and Holocaust Galleries, which open to the public on the 20th of October.  Among our guests we welcome back Vikki Hawkins and Kate Clement...

In this week’s podcast, Alice and Nicolas discuss strategy with Prof. Phillips O’Brien. Phil joined the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews in 2016 as Professor of Strategic Studies; he also directs the university’s interdisciplinary Institute for the Study of War and Strategy, which has some obvious areas of overlap with the Visualising War project. His interests in...

This week Alice and Nicolas have a special treat for you: the first episode of a two-part mini-series on the Imperial War Museum ’s recently redesigned WWI, WWII and Holocaust Galleries. The WWI Galleries are already open to the public and will be the focus of this week’s episode. In a couple of weeks, the second part of this mini-series will then take a closer look at the WWII and Holocaust Galle...

In this episode, Alice talks to acclaimed composer Dr Anthony Ritchie about his oratorio 'Gallipoli to the Somme', which was commissioned for the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and City Choir Dunedin as part of the centenary commemorations of the First World War. Also joining us is Dr Kate Kennedy , a musician, librettist and expert on the poetry and songs of WW1. Both have lots to say about...

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Prof. Anders Engberg-Pedersen , Professor of Comparative Literature  at the University of Southern Denmark. Anders is the author of Empire of Chance , published in 2015, which argues that the Napoleonic Wars not only changed the nature of warfare but also revolutionised people's understanding of chance, contingency and probability, inspiring a new...

In this episode, Alice interviews historian Dr Omar Mohammed, founder of the acclaimed Mosul Eye blog. When ISIS captured Mosul in 2014, Omar began posting regular updates to keep people informed and to counter misinformation – and his blog became a vital source of information both for those within the city and the wider world. He posted regularly throughout the occupation and liberation of Mosul,...

‘The non-violent Syrian uprising that turned into an armed conflict was born digital and networked from the very moment an unarmed activist used a smartphone camera to shoot while an armed man raised his gun to shoot at him .’ Donatella della Ratta, Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria  (2018) . In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Dr Donatella della Ratta ,...

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Dr Frank Möller, a researcher at the Tampere Peace Research Institute, Finland. Frank studies peace photography - both how photography can represent peace, and how such representations can contribute to peace. He has published several books on this topic, including Visual Peace: Images, Spectatorship and the Politics of Violence (Palgrave Macmillan, 201...

In this episode, Alice interviews a journalist from Afghanistan about the events of August 2021, when the Taliban seized control of the country. They discuss the complex series of conflicts and international interventions that led up to the Taliban takeover, going back over several decades, and the ways in which wars of the past have been represented and (mis)understood. They also talk about the i...

In this week's episode, Alice talks to Dr Emily Mayhew , a historian of medicine at Imperial College, London. Emily specialises in the study of severe casualty - its infliction, treatment and long-term outcomes in 20th and 21st century warfare. Recently, she has worked particularly closely with researchers and staff at the Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies, based at Imperia...

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas talk to producer and director Sam Taplin about representations of war in TV documentaries. Sam has worked in a variety of genres, from factual programmes to drama documentaries. He has credits with Channel 4, Channel 5, Netflix, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and PBS, among others, and has particularly specialised in documentaries on the S...

In this week's episode, Alice interviews Anthony Borden, Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting . Founded 30 years ago, the IWPR thinks globally but works locally, fostering grassroots journalism in many different parts of the world. Via training, mentoring and support on the ground, it empowers local journalists and civil society groups to tackle disinfor...

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Ewan Downie, an actor, writer, director and co-founder of the Company of Wolves , a laboratory theatre company whose mission is to make compelling drama ‘that speaks directly to the times in which we live’.  Ewan recently staged a one-man show that explored the story of Achilles , an ancient Greek warrior made famous by Homer's epic poem The Iliad...