Dr Natasha Danilova

Biography

I joined the University of Aberdeen in 2014. I hold a PhD in Politics from the University of Nottingham (2012) and a Candidate of Sociology from Saratov State University with the European University in St Petersburg (2003). I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK (2016). 

I specialise in interdisciplinary research, particularly in Critical Military Studies, Civil-Military Relations, Gender Politics, Feminist IR, Memory Politics, Art/Visuality, and Russian and Eurasian politics.

Before Aberdeen, I worked at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus), University of Nottingham (inc. campuses in the UK and in Malaysia), and the National Research University Higher School of Economics (St Petersburg). 

Throughout my academic career, I lectured on gender and politics, feminist IR, research methods in the social sciences, qualitative research methods, the politics of memory, political theory, and international security, and delivered analyses of political and security developments in Russia and across Eurasia. 

Research Overview

My research interests lie in the interdisciplinary fields of Critical Military Studies, Feminist International Relations, Memory Politics, Civil-Military Relations, and Art in Global Politics. In particular, I study issues relating to gender and war, memory politics, heroes and heroism, art/aesthetics/visuality in the context of war and peace, militarism and militarisation in Western (Britain and the US) and non-Western contexts (e.g. Russian and Eurasian politics). 

Current Research

With Dr Jenny Mathers (University of Aberystwyth), I have been working on the analysis of Russia's women's responses to the Russo-Ukrainian war. We published a full-length paper in Cooperation & Conflict (2025), and three short analytical pieces in The Conversation (2023), Open Democracy (2023) and The Conversation focused on military wives' protest (2024).  

I am currently working on a co-authored manuscript with Dr Emma Dolan on the gendered and racial aspects of the cultural politics of militarisation in Britain (under contract with Edinburgh University Press; Advanced Critical Military Studies Series) (2026-2027). 

Past Research

Previously, I was a Co-I on the AHRC-funded 'Hero Project', 2015-16 (AH/M006271/1), which explored a popular hero in modern Britain, and worked with Dr Abbie Garrington (Durham/Newcastle, PI), Professor Berny Sebe (University of Birmingham, Co-I), and the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. 

Using comparative survey-based data, I studied generational, gender and racial differences in the selection of popular heroes and co-authored two research papers with Dr Ekaterina Kolpinskaya (University of Exeter) (see here (2020) and here (2024)). 

My doctoral research and later a book, The Politics of War Commemoration in the UK and Russia (Palgrave, 2015), compares the political discourses in the UK and Russia centred on British and Russian military fatalities between the 1980s and the 2000s, using media coverage, physical/virtual war memorials, and ceremonies. 

Knowledge Exchange

Public Engagement Talks: Women in Scottish Remembrance at the University of 3Age (Banchory), and Forgotten Heroine: Lady Haig, The Scottish Poppy and Supporting Disabled Veterans, Aberdeen Art Gallery (2024). 

Media work, 'Why are women and people of colour overlooked as heroes?' (2024)

Public Engagement Talk: 'Lady Haig, Scottish remembrance and support of Scottish disabled veterans', Local Heritage Group, in cooperation with the Stonehaven library and Live Life Aberdeenshire, https://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/events/18042/ (3 November 2022)

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' about British colonial history to critical engagement with colonial injustices, 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), I am a lead author in the co-authored book project, Gender and Race in the Cultural Politics of Militarisation in Britain. This project draws on research on military museums, state-funded war commemorations, art/theatrical productions, and remembrance-focused educational projects across Scotland. 

With Dr Jenny Mathers (University of Aberystwyth), I collaborate on the study of gender dynamics in Russia's response to war in Ukraine, focusing on soldiers' mothers and military wives. 

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

Funding and Grants

Aleksanteri Institute Visiting Research Fellowship, 'The Gendered Responses to Russo-Ukrainian War', University of Helsinki, 2023 (€6,800) 

A pilot project, 'Where Russia's Soldiers' Mothers' Now? The Gendered Responses to Russo-Ukrainian War', supported by the School of Social Science and the University of Aberdeen Development Fund, with Dr Mathers (Aberystwyth), 2023 (£3,450)

PI on the research project, 'Military and Arts Collaborations in the Era of the Global War on Terror', supported by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2022-2023 (£13,509) 

The Scottish Warrior Public Engagement grant with the Gordon Highlanders Museum, Nov 2017 (£500)

Principal Investigator on the project, 'War Commemoration, Military Culture and Identity Politics in Scotland, funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (RG13890/70560), 2017-18 (£7,226) 

Co-investigator on the AHRC-funded ECR Care for the Future Programme, 'The Hero Project' (AH/M006271/1), with Dr Garrington/PI (Durham) and Professor Sebe/Co-I (Birmingham), 2015-16 (£4,225 UoA share; a total value of grant £50,000)

Post-Doctoral Bursary in the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Nottingham, 2012-2013 (£10,000)

Overseas Research Scholarship for a 3-year PhD programme (full tuition fees), University of Nottingham, 2008-2011

Between 2002 and 2007, my research and publication work was supported by a range of international funders, including The Kennan Institute of the Woodraw Wilson International Centre for Scholars (2003-2005), The Ford Foundation (2005), Penal Reform International (2004), The EU Tempus TACIS programme (2006-2007), The Henrich Bell Foundation (Germany; 2002; 2006), and The Academy of Finland Research Mobility grants (2003; 2005).         

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 in Global Politics) 

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 heroes, and politics and security of Russia and across Eurasian states.   

Areas of potential PhD supervision: I primarily work in critical military studies, feminist international relations, society-military relations, and Art/Visuality in IR. I will be happy to supervise any topics relating to gender and war, politics of war memory and commemoration; 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.