Professor Jutta Weldes

Personal profile

Instructor at the University of Minnesota 1987-92; Assistant Professor at Kent State University 1992-99. Lecturer at Bristol from 1999, Senior Lecturer from 2002, Reader from 2006, Professor from 2010.

Research

I am currently working on a number of research projects. I am particularly interested in the diverse relations between popular culture and (world) politics. In this stream of research I am currently working on two papers. One, with Christina Rowley, examines representations of in/security in the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, arguing that Buffy performs a post-structural understanding of in/security. The second, with Daniel Conway, was inspired by the exhibition 'Dressed for the Occasion' held at Buckingham Palace in 2006 which commemorated the Queen's 80th birthday by displaying 80 of her 'diplomatic' gowns. The paper examines dresses and jewelry worn by Queen Elizabeth II on state visits for representations both of the monarchy and of Britishness within Britain, within the Commonwealth, and within Britain's public diplomacy more generally. I am also engaged in writing a monograph about popular culture and world politics more generally.

A second major project examines the transnationalisation of the state in the context of neo-liberal globalisation and US empire. This project, based on two book chapters - on policing and on empire - and two recent conference papers - on the global torture system and the state's role in the transnational sex industry and sex trafficking - reintegrates the analysis of institutions, and specifically the transnationalising state, into a discourse analytic approach to international relations. I plan to write a book on 'the state as a sex machine' that explores the transnationalisation of the state and policing apparatuses through the investigation of the transnationalisation of the policing of the global sex industry and sex trafficking.

Teaching

I teach in the broad area of world politics and am particularly interested in the various intertextual relationships between popular culture and world politics, in US foreign policy, and in globalisation. I am also very interested in the state and in questions of gender. I am delighted to supervise both undergraduate, MSc, and PhD dissertations in any and all of these areas (as well as others).

I encourage students to learn critically in order to assess both their own preconceptions about world politics and the received wisdom generally transmitted through the media and popular culture more generally. I encourage students to delve into a variety of resources in learning about world politics, including such artefacts of popular culture as television, films, news media and advertising, primary sources such as government documents, and the vast resources of the internet.

I currently teach:

• Popular Culture and International Relations (final year)
• Feminisms and International Relations (MSc)

In the past I have also taught units at Bristol on:

• World Politics: Instruments of Action (2nd year)
• Theories of International Relations (MSc)
• Debating Globalization (MSc)
• Constructivisms and International Relations (MSc)

In the US I taught a wide array of courses on such topics as:

• Introduction to World Politics
• Scope and Methods of Political Science
• US Foreign Policy
• US National Security Policy
• Understanding War
• The State

Full publications list in the University of Bristol publications system