The military in our midst, with Vron Ware

Vron Ware will give a lecture on military personnel as a racialised and gendered construct. The lecture will be held at the Institute for Anthropology of the University of Copenhagen, Thursday, 30.may.

Vron Ware, Research Fellow, Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change (CRESC) and Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance (CCIG), The Open University, UK. Department of Sociology, has had a lifelong interest in questions of racism and gender, whiteness, British national identity, feminism and the far right.

Her most recent book Military Migrants investigates the recruitment of Britain's Commonwealth soldiers and the British Army's attempts to deal with equality and diversity issues. (http:/militarymigrants.org) Her current research is concerned with the changing place of military institutions in UK society as a result of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Title of the lecture: The military in our midst

Abstract: the changing practices of war work, and in particular the fate and fortune of our national militaries, play a significant role in reshaping, challenging and even entrenching social and political orders at home. While this is perhaps easier to illustrate in relation to gender, this entails questions of racism, culture and citizenship as well. A close examination of the soldier-worker-citizen as a racialised and gendered construct can offer an effective means of exposing the hidden material and financial resources that are required to commit a country to war and keep it there.

The lecture will be held on Thursday 30. may, from 14:15 to 16:00 in room 18.1.08 at;

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Øster Farimagsgade 5

1353 Copenhagen K.