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Staff Profile

Dr Alice Cree

NUAcT Fellow: Economic & Social Sciences

Background

I am an NU Academic Track (NUAcT) Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Politics & Sociology. My research is orientated around the theme 'Critical Martial Geographies', and focuses on critically re-examining the sites and bodies of military violence. 


I have recently completed work on an ESRC New Investigator project 'Conflict, Intimacy, and Military Wives: A Lively Geopolitics' (Principal Investigator, £300,000), alongside Hannah West and Workie Ticket Theatre CIC. Using theatre-as-method with military partners across the country, this research examined how 'conflict' plays out in intimate domestic spaces and personal relationships as a 'fluid complex of violence'.


Before coming to Newcastle in October 2018, I completed a BA (Hons), MA and PhD all at Durham University. My PhD project, titled 'The Hero, The Monster, The Wife: Geographies of Remaking and Reclaiming the Contemporary Military Hero' explored how the sovereign subject of the military hero is brought into recognition in popular culture and the everyday.



Research

My current work uses participatory creative methods to examine gendered military experience, in particular with women veterans and military partners. My research maintains a commitment to feminist research practice by playing the 'everyday' at the forefront of its concern, and mobilising creative methodological approaches to personal and political encounters.


Recent projects:


'Conflict, Intimacy, and Military Wives: A Lively Geopolitics' (ESRC New Investigator grant, August 2020 - September 2022):   Using theatre-as-method with military partners across the country, this research examines how 'conflict' plays out in intimate domestic spaces and personal relationships as a 'fluid complex of violence'. (Mentored by Professor Rachel Pain, and in collaboration with Hannah West and Workie Ticket Theatre CIC).


'Women Warriors' (Newcastle University Social Justice Fund; Arts Council England): This collaborative project with Workie Ticket Theatre CIC and women veterans in the North East of England used participatory feminist theatre to explore the lived experiences of women in the military. This project was featured on 'Look North', BBC Radio Newcastle, and Forces TV.


'Dramatizing the home front: The lively politics of gendered militarism' (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship): This work explored the critical potential of participatory theatre as research method in critical military studies. In particular, it develops my doctoral work with the Military Wives Choir and considers how participatory community theatre can give flesh to the labour undertaken by women married to servicemen.


'The Hero, The Monster, The Wife: Geographies of Remaking and Reclaiming the Contemporary Military Hero' (ESRC 1 3 studentship): This project considered how the sovereign subject of the military hero is brought into recognition in popular culture and the everyday. Using four diverse 'sites', specifically the Plymouth military community theatre project Boots at the Door, the Invictus Games, Help for Heroes, and the Military Wives Choir, this research makes an important contribution to our understanding of how contemporary war functions.



Wider areas of expertise:


Critical Military Studies


Feminist Geopolitics


Political Geography


Creative Methods


Selected grants and awards:


August 2020 - August 2022

ESRC New Investigator (£299,999.09)


January 2019

Pioneer Award, Newcastle University (£5,000)


November 2018

Newcastle University Social Justice Fund (£5,000)


Oct 2018 - Oct 2019

ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (£94,892.56)


September 2018

European International Studies Association Mobility Fund (£326)


Oct 2013 – Oct 2017

ESRC 1 3 studentship (£72,754)



Editorial roles:


Associate Editor (Special Issues) for Critical Military Studies journal.

Publications