Tatevik Mnatsakanyan

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College: College of Social Sciences and International Studies
Discipline: Politics
Department: Politics, College of Social Sciences and International Studies

I completed my PhD in Politics (International Relations) at the University of Exeter in 2015, and have recently taken up a position as a Lecturer in Diplomacy and International Governance, University of Loughborough, London.

My PhD research titled ‘Contesting Security, and the Binding Effect in the US and the UK Discourse and Policy of “War on Terror”’ is the basis of my current work towards publications. It concerns itself with understanding the "longer life" of security discourses. Theoretically, it is located at the intersections of linguistic sociology, critical realism, and critical constructivism. Drawing on Bakhtinian Dialogism, I developed a theoretical framework for treating the transformation of foreign policy/security discourses over time and their relationally produced policy outcomes. It empirically applies the latter to explore the contestations around, and the longer-term policy consequences of, the discourses on “war on terror” in the US and the UK (2001-2012). 

My developing/future research agenda revolves around identity and security; international discursive diffusion; de-securitisations/counter-securitisations and anti-war movements; re-evaluation of the Copenhagen School. Substantively, I am interested in continuity and change in the identity-security nexus in the US and the UK; and for future research, in competing Russian security representations, contesting "imaginings" of national and global "futures", and how these encounter Western security discourses.

I am passionate about teaching and research in the academia. I have developed skills in teaching and marking at undergraduate level, and some experience teaching at graduate level. In the past years, I have taught seminars and contributed to lectures for modules such as Globalisation of World Politics; Contemporary Theories of World Politics; and Security Studies. 

My previous experience involves work for diplomatic bodies and intergovernmental organisations, including the World Bank.