Professor Victoria Basham
Senior Lecturer in International Relations
Ysgol y Gyfraith a Gwleidyddiaeth
- BashamV@caerdydd.ac.uk
- +44 29208 74360
- Adeilad y Gyfraith, Ystafell 3.10, Rhodfa'r Amgueddfa, Caerdydd, CF10 3AX
Trosolwyg
Victoria Basham’s research interests lie in the field of Critical Military Studies at the intersections of feminist international relations, critical geopolitics and international political sociology. Her work seeks to explore how war, and war preparedness, shape people’s daily lives and how daily life can, in turn, influence and facilitate war and other geopolitical outcomes. She is particularly interested in how gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and social class shape the prioritisation, use and perpetration of military force, especially in liberal democratic societies.
In 2015, Victoria became the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Critical Military Studies (Taylor & Francis) which she co-founded and now co-edits with Dr Huw Bennett here at Cardiff (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcms20).
Victoria is also co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press book series, Advances in Critical Military Studies, with Dr Sarah Bulmer at the University of Exeter (https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-advances-in-critical-military-studies.html).
Victoria serves as an elected member of the Executive Board of the European International Studies Association (http://www.eisa-net.org/) and from September 2017 she becomes EISA President for 2 years. In 2017 she also serves as Programme Chair (with Dr Cemel Burak Tansel at the University of Sheffield) of the EISA's 11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, held in Barcelona, Spain (http://www.paneuropeanconference.org/2017/).
Cyhoeddiad
2022
- Basham, V. M. 2022. Everyday modalities of militarization: beyond unidirectional, state-centric, and simplistic accounts of state violence. Critical Military Studies (10.1080/23337486.2022.2070692)
- Johnson, J., Basham, V. and Thomas, O. 2022. Ordering disorder: The making of world politics. Review of International Studies (10.1017/S0260210522000183)
- Basham, V. M. 2022. Gender issues. In: Roy, K. ed. Oxford Bibliographies Military History. Oxford University Press, (10.1093/OBO/9780199791279-0211)
2021
- Johnson, J. M. and Basham, V. M. 2021. Living in dangerous times. Critical Studies on Terrorism (10.1080/17539153.2021.1980181)
- Catignani, S. and Basham, V. 2021. The gendered politics of researching military policy in the age of the ‘knowledge economy’. Review of International Studies 47(2), pp. 211-230. (10.1017/S0260210521000036)
- Catignani, S. and Basham, V. M. 2021. Reproducing the military and heteropatriarchal normal: Army Reserve service as serious leisure. Security Dialogue 52(2), pp. 99-117. (10.1177/0967010620923969)
- Basham, V. 2021. A necessarily historical materialist moment? Feminist reflections on the need for grounded critique in an age of crisis. International Relations 35(1), pp. 178-182. (10.1177/0047117821992408)
2020
- Basham, V. M. 2020. "Wenn du frieden willst, bereite krieg vor". Über liberalen militarismus. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 70(16-17), pp. 48-52.
- Basham, V. M. 2020. From Hitler’s Youth to the British child soldier: how the martial regulation of children normalises and legitimises war. In: Beier, J. M. ed. Discovering Childhood in International Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 135-154.
2018
- Basham, V. M. 2018. Liberal militarism as insecurity, desire and ambivalence: gender, race and the everyday geopolitics of war. Security Dialogue 49(1-2), pp. 32-43. (10.1177/0967010617744977)
- Basham, V. and Catignani, S. 2018. War is where the hearth is: gendered labor and the everyday reproduction of the geopolitical in the army reserves. International Feminist Journal of Politics 20(2), pp. 153-171. (10.1080/14616742.2018.1442736)
2017
- Basham, V. and Bulmer, S. 2017. Critical military studies as method: an approach to studying gender and the military. In: Duncanson, C. and Woodward, R. eds. Palgrave International Handbook of Gender and the Military. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 59-72.
2016
- Basham, V. M. 2016. Raising an army: the geopolitics of militarizing the lives of working-class boys in an age of austerity. International Political Sociology 10(3), pp. 258-274. (10.1093/ips/olw013)
- Basham, V. 2016. Gender and militaries: the importance of military masculinities for the conduct of state sanctioned violence. In: Sharoni, S. et al. eds. Handbook on Gender and War. International Handbooks on Gender Edward Elgar, pp. 29-46.
- Baker, C., Basham, V., Bulmer, S., Gray, H. and Hyde, A. 2016. Encounters with the military: toward a feminist ethics of critique?. International Feminist Journal of Politics 18(1), pp. 140-154. (10.1080/14616742.2015.1106102)
- Basham, V. 2016. Gender, race, militarism and remembrance: the everyday geopolitics of the poppy. Gender, Place & Culture 23(6), pp. 883-896. (10.1080/0966369X.2015.1090406)
2015
- Basham, V. 2015. Waiting for war: soldiering, temporality and the gendered politics of boredom and joy in military spaces. In: Ahall, L. and Gregory, T. eds. Emotions, Politics and War. Interventions Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 128-140.
- Basham, V. M. 2015. Telling geopolitical tales: temporality, rationality, and the 'childish' in the ongoing war for the Falklands-Malvinas Islands. Critical Studies on Security 3(1), pp. 77-89. (10.1080/21624887.2015.1014698)
- Basham, V., Belkin, A. and Gifkins, J. 2015. What is critical military studies?. Critical Military Studies 1(1), pp. 1-2. (10.1080/23337486.2015.1006879)
2013
- Basham, V. 2013. War, identity and the liberal state: everyday experiences of the geopolitical in the Armed Forces. Interventions. Routledge.
- Basham, V. and Vaughan-Williams, N. 2013. Gender, race and border security practices: a profane reading of 'muscular liberalism’. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 15(4), pp. 509-527. (10.1111/j.1467-856X.2012.00517.x)
- Basham, V., Hurcombe, M. and Pearson, C. 2013. Introduction: traces of conflict. Journal of War and Culture Studies 6(1), pp. 1-5. (10.1179/1752627212Z.0000000001)
2011
- Basham, V. 2011. Harnessing social diversity in the British Armed Forces: the limitations of ‘management’ approaches. In: Leuprecht, C. ed. Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity. Routledge, pp. 69-87.
- Basham, V. 2011. Kids with guns: militarization, masculinities, moral panic and (dis)organised violence. In: Beir, J. M. ed. The Militarization of Childhood: Thinking Beyond the Global South. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 175-193.
2009
- Basham, V. 2009. Effecting discrimination: operational effectiveness and harassment in the British Armed Forces. Armed Forces & Society 35(4), pp. 728-744. (10.1177/0095327X08324762)
- Basham, V. 2009. Harnessing social diversity in the British Armed Forces: the limitations of 'management' approaches. Journal of Comparative and Commonwealth Politics 47(4), pp. 411-429. (10.1080/14662040903363071)
2008
- Basham, V. 2008. Everyday gendered experiences and the discursive construction of civilian and military identities in Britain. NORMA: Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies 3(2), pp. 150-166.
Articles
- Basham, V. M. 2022. Everyday modalities of militarization: beyond unidirectional, state-centric, and simplistic accounts of state violence. Critical Military Studies (10.1080/23337486.2022.2070692)
- Johnson, J., Basham, V. and Thomas, O. 2022. Ordering disorder: The making of world politics. Review of International Studies (10.1017/S0260210522000183)
- Johnson, J. M. and Basham, V. M. 2021. Living in dangerous times. Critical Studies on Terrorism (10.1080/17539153.2021.1980181)
- Catignani, S. and Basham, V. 2021. The gendered politics of researching military policy in the age of the ‘knowledge economy’. Review of International Studies 47(2), pp. 211-230. (10.1017/S0260210521000036)
- Catignani, S. and Basham, V. M. 2021. Reproducing the military and heteropatriarchal normal: Army Reserve service as serious leisure. Security Dialogue 52(2), pp. 99-117. (10.1177/0967010620923969)
- Basham, V. 2021. A necessarily historical materialist moment? Feminist reflections on the need for grounded critique in an age of crisis. International Relations 35(1), pp. 178-182. (10.1177/0047117821992408)
- Basham, V. M. 2020. "Wenn du frieden willst, bereite krieg vor". Über liberalen militarismus. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 70(16-17), pp. 48-52.
- Basham, V. M. 2018. Liberal militarism as insecurity, desire and ambivalence: gender, race and the everyday geopolitics of war. Security Dialogue 49(1-2), pp. 32-43. (10.1177/0967010617744977)
- Basham, V. and Catignani, S. 2018. War is where the hearth is: gendered labor and the everyday reproduction of the geopolitical in the army reserves. International Feminist Journal of Politics 20(2), pp. 153-171. (10.1080/14616742.2018.1442736)
- Basham, V. M. 2016. Raising an army: the geopolitics of militarizing the lives of working-class boys in an age of austerity. International Political Sociology 10(3), pp. 258-274. (10.1093/ips/olw013)
- Baker, C., Basham, V., Bulmer, S., Gray, H. and Hyde, A. 2016. Encounters with the military: toward a feminist ethics of critique?. International Feminist Journal of Politics 18(1), pp. 140-154. (10.1080/14616742.2015.1106102)
- Basham, V. 2016. Gender, race, militarism and remembrance: the everyday geopolitics of the poppy. Gender, Place & Culture 23(6), pp. 883-896. (10.1080/0966369X.2015.1090406)
- Basham, V. M. 2015. Telling geopolitical tales: temporality, rationality, and the 'childish' in the ongoing war for the Falklands-Malvinas Islands. Critical Studies on Security 3(1), pp. 77-89. (10.1080/21624887.2015.1014698)
- Basham, V., Belkin, A. and Gifkins, J. 2015. What is critical military studies?. Critical Military Studies 1(1), pp. 1-2. (10.1080/23337486.2015.1006879)
- Basham, V. and Vaughan-Williams, N. 2013. Gender, race and border security practices: a profane reading of 'muscular liberalism’. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 15(4), pp. 509-527. (10.1111/j.1467-856X.2012.00517.x)
- Basham, V., Hurcombe, M. and Pearson, C. 2013. Introduction: traces of conflict. Journal of War and Culture Studies 6(1), pp. 1-5. (10.1179/1752627212Z.0000000001)
- Basham, V. 2009. Effecting discrimination: operational effectiveness and harassment in the British Armed Forces. Armed Forces & Society 35(4), pp. 728-744. (10.1177/0095327X08324762)
- Basham, V. 2009. Harnessing social diversity in the British Armed Forces: the limitations of 'management' approaches. Journal of Comparative and Commonwealth Politics 47(4), pp. 411-429. (10.1080/14662040903363071)
- Basham, V. 2008. Everyday gendered experiences and the discursive construction of civilian and military identities in Britain. NORMA: Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies 3(2), pp. 150-166.
Book sections
- Basham, V. M. 2022. Gender issues. In: Roy, K. ed. Oxford Bibliographies Military History. Oxford University Press, (10.1093/OBO/9780199791279-0211)
- Basham, V. M. 2020. From Hitler’s Youth to the British child soldier: how the martial regulation of children normalises and legitimises war. In: Beier, J. M. ed. Discovering Childhood in International Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 135-154.
- Basham, V. and Bulmer, S. 2017. Critical military studies as method: an approach to studying gender and the military. In: Duncanson, C. and Woodward, R. eds. Palgrave International Handbook of Gender and the Military. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 59-72.
- Basham, V. 2016. Gender and militaries: the importance of military masculinities for the conduct of state sanctioned violence. In: Sharoni, S. et al. eds. Handbook on Gender and War. International Handbooks on Gender Edward Elgar, pp. 29-46.
- Basham, V. 2015. Waiting for war: soldiering, temporality and the gendered politics of boredom and joy in military spaces. In: Ahall, L. and Gregory, T. eds. Emotions, Politics and War. Interventions Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 128-140.
- Basham, V. 2011. Harnessing social diversity in the British Armed Forces: the limitations of ‘management’ approaches. In: Leuprecht, C. ed. Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity. Routledge, pp. 69-87.
- Basham, V. 2011. Kids with guns: militarization, masculinities, moral panic and (dis)organised violence. In: Beir, J. M. ed. The Militarization of Childhood: Thinking Beyond the Global South. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 175-193.
Books
- Basham, V. 2013. War, identity and the liberal state: everyday experiences of the geopolitical in the Armed Forces. Interventions. Routledge.
Ymchwil
I am currently working on an ESRC-Ministry of Defence grant with Dr Sergio Catignani at the University of Exeter on a project titled, Sustaining Future Reserves 2020: Assessing Organisational Commitment in the Reserves. The project considers those factors that shape and influence the commitment of volunteer reservists to serving in the British Army Reserves and what issues might motivate them to continuing serving or restrict them from doing so. It pays particular attention to the influence of family life and the pressures of civilian employment on the decisions that reservists make about their commitment to serving and intentions to remain in the Reserves, because the Army is becoming increasingly reliant on reservists at a time when changes to employment patterns and family life may also be placing greater pressure on them and their families.
Addysgu
I currently teach on the level 2 module, Gender, Sex and Death and in 2017/2018 I will be teaching on the level 3 modules, The Politics of Violence and Killing and War and Society.
I am also happy to supervise research students in the following areas:
- Critical military studies
- Critical approaches to war and peace
- Militarism and militarization
- Ddiscourse analysis, ethnography and qualitative interview research pertaining to critical military studies and critical security studies
Bywgraffiad
Prior to joining Cardiff (in January 2016), Victoria worked at the University of Exeter (from September 2009) and before that, spent several years at the University of Bristol obtaining her undergraduate degree in Social Policy and Politics (2002), completing her PhD on gender, race and sexuality in the British Armed Forces (2007), and carrying out an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007-2008), during which she was also a Visiting Fellow at the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), Toronto, Canada.
Meysydd goruchwyliaeth
- Astudiaethau milwrol critigol
- Dulliau beirniadol o ryfel a heddwch (ffeministaidd, ôl-drefedigaethol ac IPE)
- Militariaeth, milwriaeth ac ansicrwydd
- Sgandal ac ymddygiad Miitary
- Plant mewn Cysylltiadau Rhyngwladol
- Curadu a diwylliannau rhyfel a militariaeth
- Dadansoddiad o ddisg, ethnograffeg ac ymchwil cyfweliad ansoddol sy'n ymwneud ag astudiaethau milwrol beirniadol ac astudiaethau diogelwch critigol
Goruchwyliaeth gyfredol

Miss Nicola Lester
Myfyriwr ymchwil