Dr Hannah West

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Senior Research Fellow

Veterans & Families Institute for Military Social Research

Location:
Chelmsford

Hannah is a Senior Research Fellow at ARU's Centre for Military Women’s Research and Senior Programme Officer for the Female Veterans' Transformation Programme.

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Background

Hannah's interdisciplinary research employs creative methods to explore military cultures/behaviours, women’s military history post-1945 and counterinsurgency/human security. She draws on her lived experience as a former Royal Navy Air Engineer.

Hannah is Founder/Co-Chair of the Defence Research Network, a peer-to-peer support network for early career researchers.

Research interests
  • Gender, war and military power
  • Women’s military history
  • Counterinsurgency/human security
Qualifications
  • PhD in Security, Conflict and Justice
  • MA in International Liaison and Communication
  • Chartered Engineer
Memberships, editorial boards
  • Co-Chair of the Defence Research Network
  • Co-Editor of the Journal of War and Culture Studies
  • Member of the Critical Military Studies Working Group, British International Studies Association
Selected recent publications

West, H. (2024) ‘The non-combatant on the “front line”: British servicewomen during the Troubles in Northern Ireland’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2024.2393653

West, H. (2023) ‘A negotiated gender order: British Army control of servicewomen in ‘front line’ counterinsurgency, 1948-2014’, Journal of War and Culture Studies, 16(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17526272.2023.2188638

West, H. (2023) ‘Autoethnographic creativity: Re-remembering military service’. In: Cree, A. (Ed.) (2023) Creative Methods in Military Research. Washington: Rowman and Littlefield.

Cree, A. and West, H. (2023) ‘Theatre of war: Critical feminist research praxis in creative military research’. In: Cree, A., (Ed.) (2023) Creative Methods in Military Research. Washington: Rowman and Littlefield.

Antrobus, S. and West, H. (2022) ''This is all very academic': Critical thinking in Professional Military Education', RUSI Journal, 167(3), pp. 78-86. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2022.2112521

West, H. (2021) 'Camp follower or counterinsurgent? Lady Templer and the forgotten wives', Small Wars & Insurgencies, 32(7), pp. 1138-1162. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2020.1860373

West, H. and Antrobus, S. (2023) ''Deeply odd': women veterans as critical feminist scholars', Critical Military Studies, 9(1), pp. 24-39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2021.1907020

Recent presentations and conferences

West, H. (2024) 'What did YOU do in the war, Mummy?', Friday lunchtime seminar, National Army Museum, London. Presented paper.

West, H. (2023) 'The Making of the Very Model of the Modern Servicewoman: The Oppressive Function of Marginalising Women’s Military History', New Directions in the History of Warfare and Violence Seminar Series, Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War, King's College London. Presented paper.

West, H. (2023) 'The Making of the Very Model of the Modern Servicewoman: The Oppressive Function of Marginalising Women’s Military History', Inter University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Reston, Virginia. Presented paper.

West, H. (2023) 'The serious and the silly: A feminist encounter with war through theatre-as-method', European International Studies Association Conference, Potsdam. Presented paper.

West, H. (2023) 'Invisible bodies of war: British servicewomen on covert operations in Northern Ireland'; 'The non-combatant on the "front line": British servicewomen during the Troubles in Northern Ireland'; '"Magnolia Walls": Theatre-as-method in critical military studies', British International Studies Association Conference, Glasgow. Presented three papers.