Executive Committee candidates 2025 announced - vote now!

I am Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University. I’ve been a BISA member for 20 years, benefiting from the Association’s support throughout; from presenting doctoral findings to my academic hero, Cynthia Enloe, to more recent participation in events for department heads.

I’m standing for Vice Chair because I want to actively contribute to BISA’s championing of our discipline and its future. I share BISA’s commitments to inclusion and benefiting all its members. I value its support for those at different career stages. I admire its work to identify, monitor, and tackle disparities. I’m keen to explore further ways that BISA could increase awareness of our collective research and pedagogical excellence, and its social value. This is especially important when the value of academic knowledge is being questioned.

As a former Head of Department, former President of the European International Studies Association, and as an experienced editor, I have skills and experience that would enable me to work effectively and positively with the BISA team, trustees, and members to ensure our Association remains strong and sustainable. I would draw on my capabilities in decision-making, communication, networking, facilitation, financial management, and strategic planning to help BISA continue to enrich our discipline.

As a queer woman I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the BISA executive committee in the role of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Officer, ensuring inclusive norms are upheld across all organisation activities. Since attending my first BISA conference in 2019 I have found this community welcoming and supportive, especially through the Gendering International Relations Working Group.

EDI values are central to my research and teaching at the intersection of gender, security studies and queer theory. I bring a feminist, anti-racist approach to my work, seeking to bridge gaps between academic, policy and activism. I have been a Lecturer in Global Politics at the University of Manchester since September 2024. From 2019-2024 I was a Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and the founding co-director of QUB’s Centre for Gender in Politics. 

For this role, I would bring my experience in promoting EDI efforts in teaching and leadership roles. While chair of the International Studies Association LGBTQA Caucus (2022/23) I helped develop a mentorship program, supporting LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allies) scholars. I excel at thinking creatively about how to engage those most often left out of academic conferences and programmes and marginalised within the discipline.

After serving as conference programme chair for #BISA2024 in Birmingham and #BISA2025 in Belfast, I am seeking support from our members to serve a further two years as trustee. 

Supporting the international studies community has been important to me throughout my time as a trustee. Prior to my role as conference programme chair, I organised and contributed to our ECR/PGR development day, and have furthermore played an active role in the Association through serving on awards panels, inputting into decision making processes, and hosting a series of online events for members. If re-elected to the executive committee, I will continue to play a leading role in BISA’s activities: further supporting ECR and PGR colleagues, and helping to ensure that the Association delivers on its equality, diversity and inclusivity commitments. In challenging times for social sciences – and academia in general – our professional associations need people to strengthen and support disciplinary communities. I would be honoured if BISA’s members will enable me to continuing playing a role in this by re-electing me as a trustee.

In these volatile times, it is essential to explore different approaches to education and scholarship. Establishing a sense of belonging among colleagues and students should be given priority. BISA can play this leading role in collaborations and partnerships with various stakeholders. Working together with colleagues and universities beyond the national borders; offering workshops that bring together different voices on a more frequent and regular basis with the aim to enhance student engagement and prioritise creativity in impactful policy activities synthesise a refreshing approach. Towards that charge, BISA can facilitate the establishment of fora for integrating theory and practice on contemporary issues. I aim to revisit the question of why studying in the UK is beneficial, and my objective is to facilitate collaboration between regional and international scholarship through joint partnerships and outreach events – including research initiatives and outreach.

I attended my first BISA conference in Warwick in 1991, presented my first paper in 1993, and have found BISA to be welcoming and invaluable resource throughout my career. For the last decade as Editor of International Affairs I have worked alongside the BISA team at various conferences, participated with the BISA journal editors on Meet the Editors panels and Early Career workshops, and sought to improve the diversity of academic journals alongside maintaining the Chatham House/BISA connection. As a BISA trustee, I would hope to be able to give back to the Association, drawing on my experience in policy work, think-tanks, journal publishing, grant evaluation and a previous existence as a chartered accountant.

Hello – thanks so much for taking the time to read my statement!

I’m standing for re-election as a trustee on the BISA Executive Committee, having had the real privilege of representing colleagues within this fantastic organisation for the past two years. In my time on the committee, I’ve been lucky enough to chair the Susan Strange Best Book Prize, sit on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Prize panel, serve on the Internationalisation Task and Finish Group, and contribute to the Association’s wider work at trustee meetings and beyond. In this activity I have built on my previous role as co-convener of BISA’s Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group, as well as leadership posts including Research Director and Associate Dean for Research I have held at different universities.

It is so important that researchers, teachers, and students in our discipline are supported by a vibrant and inclusive professional organisation, especially in the challenging times we are currently experiencing. If re-elected, I would continue my commitment to helping ensure BISA serves the interests of all its members, including through supporting the development of colleagues, creating new collaborative opportunities, and sharing and celebrating the excellent work being done across our entire sector.

I am a Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. As an interdisciplinary social scientist and political ethnographer, my research and teaching seeks to bridge the disciplines of IR, political geography and comparative politics, and centre issues relating to security, mobility and space in Israel-Palestine within a range of contemporary academic conversations and debates. I have published in a wide range of journals and am also a member of the editorial team at Mobilities.

For the past two years, I have served as an active member of the BISA Executive Committee in the position of ordinary trustee. If re-elected, I would build on my previous experience to continue to represent and advance the diverse interests of BISA and its members. In particular, I would seek to continue the work of the BISA Executive Committee in increasing our international visibility and the representation of scholars from underrepresented regions, as well as those experiencing restrictions to their international mobility, while expanding and diversifying pathways to the recognition of excellence in research and teaching across our many awards and prize-giving schemes.

I am a Professor of International Politics at the University of Sheffield and have served one term as a BISA Executive Committee member and Trustee. During that time, I have played a full part in the running of the organisation, including leading on one of BISA’s funding opportunities and on organisation of the inaugural Virtual Conference, held in January 2025. The Virtual Conference was a particularly important step in BISA’s strategy to encourage more participation from international scholars in our events. As an interdisciplinary researcher (much of my work is on the global politics of health) I am particularly interested in fostering collaborations between IR and other disciplines. I also bring to BISA a strong commitment to supporting the development of early-career researchers within and beyond the UK, and extensive experience of the funding and impact agendas that all colleagues in the discipline are now having to engage with. In recent months we have seen an increase in hostility to academic scholarship coupled with, in the UK, widespread cuts in academic staff and programmes. I hope that as a BISA Executive Committee member I can play my part in the defending and supporting the discipline through these turbulent times.