Biography

Dr Natasha Danilova joined the University of Aberdeen in 2014. Dr Danilova has an interdisciplinary education, teaching and research experience, having taught at the universities in Russia, Britain and Malaysia. In 2003, Dr Danilova was awarded a PhD in Sociology (kandidat nauk) (2003) jointly from Saratov State Technical University and The European University St Petersburg (Russia). In 2012, Natasha Danilova completed a PhD in Politics at the University of Nottingham. Through her academic career, Dr Danilova lectured on sociological/political theory, research methods in social science, gender and politics, the politics of memory, International Security and political developments in Russia and the politics of Eurasian states. 

In 2016, Dr Danilova completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and achieved the status of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK.

Research Overview

My current research interests are situated in the fields of Critical Military Studies, Feminist International Relations and Art/Visuality in Global Politics. In particular, I study issues relating to gender and war, memory politics, art/aesthetics and politics, militarism and militarisation in Western and non-Western contexts. 

Current Research

I am looking forward to work on my new research project, 'Military and Arts Collaborations in the Era of the Global War on Terror: Comparison of the US and the UK (2001-present)' (Nov 2021-Nov 2022), funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities in Scotland 

I continue to work on a series of publications resulted from my research project, 'War Commemoration, Military Culture and Identity Politics in Scotland' (Jan 2017-Jan 2018) and follow-up fieldwork in 2018-19. Dr Kandida Purnell (Richmond University, London) and Dr Emma Dolan (University of Limerick) had worked as Project Research Assistants, and are currently working as co-authors. See updates: https://twitter.com/scot_war 

Past Research

Previously, I was co-investigator of the AHRC-funded 'Hero Project', 2015-16 (AH/M006271/1), which explored the role of a popular hero in modern Britain. Working with Abbie Garrington (University of Newcastle, principal investigator) and Berny Sebe (University of Birmingham, co-investigator), I studied the public perceptions of popular heroes and co-authored a paper with Dr Ekaterina Kolpinskaya (University of Exeter). 

My doctoral research looked at the discourses and practices of war commemoration in the UK and Russia. In particular, it examined the deployment of meaning-making practices centred on British and Russian military fatalities of modern conflicts through the analysis of mass media, physical and virtual memorials, and ceremonies. The findings of this research outlined in my book, The Politics of War Commemoration in the UK and Russia (Palgrave, 2015). 

Knowledge Exchange

The Warrior-Nation podcast with Forces Watch, @ForcesWatch with Dr Adam Elliot-Cooper @adamec87 and myself @Dr_Danilova, relating contemporary debates around memory/statues and how to move from feeling 'a wee bit uncomfortable' with colonial history to critical engagement with the legacy of colonialism and injustice, https://www.forceswatch.net/resources/warrior-nation-podcast-war-memory-statues-with-adam-elliot-cooper-and-natasha-danilova/  (3 June 2021)  

Collaborations

With Dr Emma Dolan (University of Limerick) and Dr Kandida Purnell (Richmond University London), working on the writing-up project relating to gender/race in the cultural politics of militarisation

With Dr Ekaterina Kolpinskaya (University of Exeter), popular heroes and gender/race inequalities

With Dr Marianna Poberezhskaya (Nottingham Trent University), politics and climate change in post-Soviet Eurasia

Funding and Grants

PI on the research project, 'Military and Arts Collaborations in the Era of the Global War on Terror', Nov 2021-Nov 2022, supported by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. 

Principal Investigator on the research project, 'War Commemoration, Military Culture and Identity Politics in Scotland, funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (RG13890/70560), 2017-18 

Co-investigator on the AHRC-funded 'Hero Project' (AH/M006271/1), 2015-16

Post-Doctoral Bursary in the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Nottingham, 2012-2013

Overseas Research Scholarship for a PhD programme, University of Nottingham, 2008-2011

Teaching Responsibilities

Please see a list of courses indicated above 

Additionally, I have taught the Hons option course, The Politics of Post-Soviet Eurasia (previously titled as Soviet Successor States) 

Areas of potential UG supervision: I would be keen to supervise dissertations relating to various aspects of gender politics and Feminist international relations, war and memory, art/aesthetics/visuality and war (inc. museums, memorials, theatre and any other cultural forms), identity politics and the imagerinaries of emerging political and security threats in Britain, Russia and other Eurasian states.   

Areas of potential PhD supervision: I mostly work within the fields of critical military studies and Feminist International Relations, and I will be happy to supervise any topics relating to the gendering of war, politics of war memory and commemoration; the interlationship between art/aesthetics/visuality and conflict (inc. museums, memorials, theatre as arenas of global politics); militarisation and militarism; identity politics in Britain/Scotland, regional politics and (in)securities in Russia and other Eurasian states.