Studio Residents

I am an Associate Professor in Global Politics in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol and a Resident at the Pervasive Media Studio at the Bristol Watershed. My work is focused on US security cultures and policies, particularly with relation to the US Global War on Terror and its legacies. First, through a study of torture, security common-sense and popular culture, and then a detailed study of the visual and material power associated with detention and interrogation practices at Joint Task Force Guantanamo. My current research focus is a study of secrecy and ignorance in relation to the second decade of the US Global War on Terror and the emerging US security doctrine of ‘shadow wars’ and 'manhunting', but particularly in the interconnections between personal and everyday secret keeping that takes gender and race as central to secrecy, and as key to understanding power on national and transnational scales.

As part of this work, I coordinate SPIN, the secrecy, power and ignorance research network (SPIN). I also run SPIN Labs, a multi-disciplinary creative space that commissions work related to the politics of unknowing, facilitating dialogue between academia and the creative sector.

Follow me on Twitter at @ellievisions

Publications and further project info at academia.edu and University of Bristol. 

PhD student and project collaborations welcome: e.vanveeren@bris.ac.uk