Popular Culture

Commercial(ized) Nationalism on Display at the Olympics

Robert A. Saunders • Aug 23 2016 • Articles

Overseas corporations are taking an increasingly important role in telling Americans exactly who they are, as in the case of several ads broadcast during the Olympics.

The Audience in Popular Culture and World Politics

Louise Pears • Jun 25 2016 • Articles

Paying attention to the way that meaning is negotiated can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

Is It Time for an Iranian-American Buddy Film?

Robert A. Saunders • Jun 15 2016 • Articles

Challenging dominant IR narratives and reworking the US geopolitical imaginary of Iran via popular culture is possible. Stranger things have happened.

Like Drone Strikes, ‘Eye in the Sky’ Is Much Less Accurate than Claimed

Alex Edney-Browne • May 25 2016 • Articles

Eye in the Sky fails to explore the real utilitarian calculations, and ethical concerns, of the US Coalition drone programme.

How Movie References Can Make Teaching Theories More Accessible

Lukas K. Danner • May 24 2016 • Articles

The different time periods in the trilogy ‘Back to the Future’ have been valuable for bringing concepts in courses such as IPE and IR Theory to life.

The Politics of Performance: Gender Identity in Cosplay

Katarina Birkedal • May 22 2016 • Articles

The study of cosplay is important as it informs the study of gender performance and popular culture narratives.

Four Things I Don’t like about the Advance Discussion of Eye in the Sky

Martin Coward • Apr 15 2016 • Articles

Does the movie ‘Eye in the Sky’ really provide insight into targeted killing? Here are four reasons why we ought to be suspicious.

Fantasies of Occupation: ‘Occupied’ and ‘the Man in the High Castle’

Robert A. Saunders • Mar 7 2016 • Articles

The Man in the High Castle is the perfect ‘distraction’ for a country riven by increasingly bitter culture wars, and a complete breakdown in civil discourse.

Review – Art and Politics Now

Ran Xiao • Feb 22 2016 • Features

Anthony Downey’s book is a timely overview of the art world’s involvement in politics and a good reference for academics interested in art’s potential to engage and even redefine politics.

Review – This War of Mine

Jane Kirkpatrick and Sven Schiltz • Feb 7 2016 • Features

By putting the civilians’ experience at the forefront, TWoM addresses the side of war that is often overlooked in many forms of popular culture as well as IR discourse.

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