What can creative methods offer our understanding of military power and militarised cultures? What constitutes 'creative research' in military studies? And, what are some of the challenges of this type of work? This edited volume brings together authors working at the cutting edge of creative research in military studies, to explore how creativity and creative practice can shed new light on often taken for granted concepts in critical military research. In twelve empirically and conceptually rich chapters, authors from a diverse range of disciplinary fields draw on theatre, model-making, songwriting, dance, spoken word, paper making, and more, to question what military research can and should look like. As a collection, the book explores topics of central concern in military studies such as militarism, military experience, and militarised cultures, as well as more practical questions around ethics, positionality, and research relationships. This path-breaking new volume considers what exactly constitutes creativity in critical military research, while offering the tools for researchers to think anew about big questions in the field.
Alice Cree is a NUAcT Fellow at Newcastle University, UK. Her research expertise lies at the intersection between Critical Military Studies and Feminist Geopolitics, with a particular focus on creative methods in military research. She is principle investigator on the Economic and Social Research Council funded project 'Conflict, Intimacy, and Military Wives: A Lively Geopolitics', and has published work in International Political Sociology, Gender, Place & Culture, and the Journal of War and Culture Studies, among others.
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Alice Cree Part I Chapter 1. Turning RAF Fylingdales Inside Out: Using Creative Practice to Understand Ballistic Missile Early Warning and Space Monitoring Rachel Woodward, Chloe Barker, K. Neil Jenkings, and Michael Mulvihill Chapter 2. Visualizing Drone Ethnography in the Shadows of Distributive War Sara Matthews Chapter 3. Notating War, Choreographing Soldiers: Dance Methods as Military Stratagem Charlotte Veal Chapter 4. All Things Bright and Beautiful the Lord Bomb Made Them All: More than Human Creativity and the Cyborg Geology of Nuclear Weapon Design Michael Mulvihill Part II Chapter 5. "These Uniforms Have Been Places." From Combat to Paper to Exchange: A CMS Research Encounter Laura Mills Chapter 6. Modelling Military Landscapes: Archival Encounters, Model-Making, and Camouflage Practice James P. Robinson Chapter 7. Theatre of War: Critical Feminist Research Praxis in Creative Military Research Alice Cree and Hannah West Chapter 8. Making Spoken Word on Combat Susanna Hast Part III Chapter 9. 'Last Op': War, Trauma, and the Legacy of Bomber Command Alexander Thomas T. Smith Chapter10. Stories Outside the Wire Rebecca Steel Chapter 11. Autoethnographic Creativity: Re-Remembering Military Service Hannah West Chapter 12. Bald Men Sharing a Comb: War Veteran Subjectivity in the Documentary Play Minefield David Jackson Bibliography About the Authors
