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Research & outputs

My work is located within critical security studies. I research security in digital spaces, focusing in particular on gender, militarisation, and ways of knowing. I sometimes publish on teaching, too. 

Key words: security, identity, states, gender, discourse, digital data

Current work

My current work focuses on social media use by militaries and arms companies, asking questions around militarisation, identity and representation. For this, I have obtained a grant from the University of Gloucestershire Small Grants Fund and was selected to participate in the British Academy/CIFAR UK/Canada knowledge exchange symposium on the subject of security. As part of this, I co-organised (with Holly Ann Garnett and Jeffrey Whyte) a workshop held 10 and 11 September 2021 titled 'Security, Truth and the Crisis of Democracy'. In December 2022 I participated in the International Studies Association International Security Studies Section Pay it Forward mentoring programme for early-career women in security.

Security studies and digital politics 

Jester, N. (Forthcoming) '"Tanks, Tracks, Troopers”: Military Masculinity in Digital Space,' in N. Dalmer, A. Kronsell and J. Joachim (eds), Handbook on Gender & Security: Persistent and New Security Issues, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Jester, N. (2024) 'Team Trump and the altercation at the Arlington military cemetery,' in US Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign, Bournemouth: Centre for Comparative Politics & Media Research, Bournemouth University, pp. 86.

Jester, N. (2024) 'Encountering Virtual Veterans: AI chatbots, martial ontologies, and memories of war,' Critical Military Studies, online first.

Jester. N (2024) 'Genderwashing and militarization: women, war and social progressiveness,' in W. Fox-Kirk and R. Gardiner (eds), Genderwashing in Leadership: Power, Policies and Politics, Bingley: Emerald.

Jester, N. (2024) '“Rishi’s D-Day Disaster”: authority, leadership and British military commemoration,' in UK Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign, Bournemouth: Centre for Comparative Politics & Media Research, Bournemouth University, pp. 75.

Jester, N. and R. Walters (2024) 'Gender Washing War: arms manufacturers and the hijacking of #InternationalWomensDay,' International Political Sociology, online first.

Jester N. (2024) 'Book review - Support the troops: military obligation, gender and the making of political community,' International Affairs, 100(1): 425-426.

Jester, N. and E. Dolan (2024) 'Aviation, Arms, and Apologies: mapping the Boeing social media response to the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash,' Critical Studies on Security [open access], 12(1): 2-17.

Jester, N. (2023) 'Digital Decay and the Global Politics of Virtual Infrastructure,' E-International Relations.

European Union 2023 call for evidence: 'Delegated Regulation on data access provided for in the Digital Services Act' (my response can be found here)

Jester, N. (2023) 'Accessible, transparent, progressive: conceptualising the militarisation of digital space through the social media presence of arms manufacturers,' Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 51(2), 463-488 [related blog post].

Jester, N. (2023) 'Making martial politics palatable: constructing neoliberal feminist subjects in arms manufacturers social media feeds,' International Feminist Journal of Politics, 25(2): 310-333 [related blog post]. A presentation of this work can be found below:

Jester, N. (2022) 'E-International Relations author interview: Natalie Jester'

Jester, N. (2022) 'International security,' in McGlinchey, S. (ed.) Foundations of International Relations, London: Bloomsbury [order here].

Jester, N. (2021) 'Army recruitment video advertisements in the US and UK since 2002: Challenging ideals of hegemonic military masculinity?' Media, War & Conflict, 14(1): 57-74.

Juncos, A., Algar-Faria, G. and Jester, N. (2018) ‘Enhancing the capacity of marginalised groups to make peace processes more successful,’ Policy Bristol briefing 05 May.

Jester, N., Algar-Faria, G., and Juncos, A. (2018) ‘Peacebuilding and Local Ownership: A Handbook for Practice,’ Bristol: University of Bristol, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1205239

Jester, N. (2017) 'Review: Quality Peace: Peacebuilding, Victory, and World Order,' International Affairs, 93(4): 978-979.

PhD work

My PhD examined how UK state identity is constructed in online British mainstream media representations of the 2011 conflict in Libya.  I was awarded my PhD in 2020. Using a discourse-theoretic approach, I drew on David Campbell's work Writing Security to show that this conflict is represented as a threat in myriad ways, re/producing the identity of the UK as a state in the process. In this case identity constructions rely upon an identity/difference binary which draws heavily upon gendered-Orientalism to code the UK as positive (moral, enlightened, a leader) and Libya as negative (violent, backward, tempting, childlike). I am - gently! - producing three papers out of my PhD materials.  

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