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James Brassett

James Brassett is Reader in the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS); previously RCUK Research Fellow in the ESRC Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR). His research addresses the everyday politics of globalisation with a focus on discourses of global ethics, crisis and resistance. Brassett has a longstanding interest in how global resistance is (re-)imagined through cultural practices like film, social media and comedy. Outputs arising from this research include four books and over 30 articles in journals such as European Journal of International Relations, International Political Sociology, International Theory, International Studies Quarterly, New Political Economy, Review of International Political Economy and Security Dialogue. In addition, Brassett has edited 8 Journal Special Issues on subjects including 'Ethics in World Politics', 'Legitimacy and Global Governance', 'The Political Economy of the Sub-Prime Crisis', 'Resilience', and 'Humour in Global Politics'. His article 'British Irony, Global Justice: A Pragmatic Reading of Chris Brown, Banksy and Ricky Gervis' won the annual BISA prize for the Best Article in Review of International Studies.

Brassett's current research project looks at the rise of humour in global politics, from the use of irony and satire in everyday global resistance to the growing circulation of memes and `banter' in international diplomacy. His commentary on humour and global politics has appeared in global media such as The Conversation, The Economist, and The New York Times.  

Books

  • I-PEEL: The International Political Economy of Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, 2022, with Juanita Elias, Lena Rethel and Ben Richardson.
  • The Ironic State: British Comedy and the Everyday Politics of Globalisation, Bristol University Press, 2021.
  • Affective Politics of the Global Event: Trauma and the Resilient Market Subject, Routledge, 2018.
  • Cosmopolitanism and Global Financial Reform: A Pragmatic Approach to the Tobin Tax, Routledge, 2010.

Recent Articles

  • Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself: Humour and the (Geo)Political Limits of Vicarious War, Cooperation and Conflict, forthcoming 2024, with Chris Browning.
  • Anxiety, Humour and (Geo)Politics: Warfare by Other Memes?, International Relations, 37(1), 2023 with Chris Browning.
  • Men Behaving Badly? Representations of Masculinity in Post-Global Financial Crisis Cinema, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 23(5), 2021, with Frederic Heine.
  • Everyday Ethics of the Global Event: Grenfell Tower and the Politics of Responsibility, Globalizations, 18(4), 2021, with Dan Bulley.
  • EU've Got to Be Kidding: Anxiety, Humour and Ontological Security, Global Society, with Chris Browning and Muireann O'Dwyer, 2021, 35(1): 8-26.

Funding

Completed Phds

Dr Frederic Heine, 'The Temptation of Inflation': Masculinities and the Eurozone Crisis', ESRC funded.

Dr Marco Andreu, Impact Bonds and the Ambiguous Politics of Market Ethics, Warwick Chancellors Fellowship.

Dr Aya Nassar, Spaces of Power: Politics, Subjectivity and Materiality in Post-Independence Cairo, Warwick Chancellors Fellowship.

Dr Donna Greene, The Sustainability of the Social Democratic Welfare State: A Case Study of Barbados 1974-1994.

Dr Maurice Stierl, Migration Resistance as Border Politics: Counter Imaginaries of Europe, Warwick Chancellors Fellowship.

Dr Chris Rossdale, Anarchism, Anti-Militarism and the Politics of Security, ESRC Funded, Winner of the BISA Michael Nicholson Prize for the Best Thesis in IR, 2014.

Dr Chris Clarke, The Ethics of Liberal Market Governance: Adam Smith and the Constitution of Financial Market Agency, ESRC Funded.

Dr Mark Fowle, Practices of Emancipation: Security, Dialogue and Change in Post-War Vukovar, ESRC Funded.

Dr Chris Holmes, Economistic Fallacies in Contemporary Capitalism: A Polanyian Analysis of Regimes of Marketised Protection, ESRC Funded.

 

 

 

 

james brassett

Research Interests

  • Everyday Politics of Globalisation
  • Alternative Practices of Resistance
  • Mediatisation of Global Politics
  • Humour and International Relations

Public Engagement

Contact Details

Office: E2.12

Telephone: 02476-574420

Office hrs via Teams: Wednesday 10am-12pm, during term time, except Reading week,