This postdoctoral fellowship builds on my PhD research, which is an ethnographically-informed study of organisational cultures in national security policymaking within the UK Civil Service. My research explores how organisational cultures in government departments are shaped by gender, race and class, and how this shapes how officials think and speak about security policies, with a focus on counterterrorism policy and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The study builds on and intervenes in literature examining how constructions of masculinity and femininity, whiteness and middle- and upper-classness can function to reproduce militaristic and colonial ways of thinking about security, while also exploring whether and how organisational cultures have changed as departments have become more diverse. The fellowship will focus on disseminating my research findings by producing publications and engaging with policymakers and civil society organisations working on peace and security issues.
This episode of the Warrior Nation podcast explores my research findings on how organisational cultures shaped by gender, race and class influence how UK civil servants think and speak about national security policy.