Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Katharine A. M. Wright

Senior Lecturer in International Politics

  • Email: katharine.a.m.wright@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44191 208 0283
  • Address: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Dr Katharine A. M. Wright is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Newcastle University and a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program. Her work focuses on how defence and security institutions, particularly NATO, respond to contemporary challenges of societal resilience, legitimacy and institutional change. She specialises in how security policy is designed and implemented in practice, with an emphasis on civil-military relations, organisational adaptation and whole-of-society approaches to defence.

Her research also analyses the role of strategic narratives and digital diplomacy in shaping public trust and institutional authority, drawing on the UN Women, Peace and Security agenda as a focus.

Her forthcoming book, Critical Perspectives on NATO: Feminist Insights, co-edited with Sorana Jude, will be published by Bristol University Press in early 2026.

Dr Wright has extensive experience bridging research, policy and civil society communities. Her research has informed the work of NATO, governments, militaries and NGOs through workshops, briefings and collaborative initiatives. She was nominated by the UK Government to serve on the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel on Women, Peace and Security and currently sits on its Steering Committee. She is an elected member of the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC) and represents Newcastle University on the Northumbrian Universities Military Education Committee (NUMEC). In addition to her academic and policy engagement, she is an occasional media commentator, having provided expert analysis for outlets including BBC News and ABC News.

Research expertise

  • NATO and defence institutions
  • Public policy and institutional change
  • Societal resilience
  • Strategic narratives and digital diplomacy

Professional Memberships

International Studies Association (ISA)

British International Studies Association (BISA)

Women in International Security (WIIS)

Google scholar: Click here.

Orcid ID: 0000-0003-0911-5122


Research

Dr Wright's research examines how NATO and other defence and military institutions respond to calls for more inclusive approaches to security. Focus areas include the Women, Peace and Security agenda, institutional change, and societal resilience, as well as how digital diplomacy and strategic narratives influence perceptions of legitimacy in international security.

She is co-author of NATO, Gender and the Military: Women Organising

from Within, which received an Honourable Mention for the 2020 BISA

Susan Strange Book Prize.

Her work has also examined the European Union’s approach to WPS, including through the

lens of the Common Security and Defence Policy and digital diplomacy. She has a

growing portfolio of research on how WPS is implemented at the national level

and domesticated, most recently co-leading a project funded by the Equality

Commission for Northern Ireland on the impact of Brexit on women.


Teaching

Dr Wright is passionate about learning and teaching. She has taught on a broad range of Politics and International Relations modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level across three different institutions. Her approach to teaching is grounded in the idea that students should be actively involved in their own learning. She draws extensively on the problem based approach, including simulations, to support students in connecting theoretical concepts with empirical reality.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has a PgCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCAP) with distinction.

Dr Wright has been an External Examiner at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Staffordshire University and Leeds Beckett University.





Publications