Jennifer Mathers, Ph.D.
zzk@aber.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Aberystwyth University
Year of PhD: 1994
Phone: +44 7808 198715
Address: Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University
City: Aberystwyth, Wales - SY23 4UH
Country: United Kingdom
About Me:
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University (UK) although I was born and brought up in the United States. I was educated at Mount Holyoke College (BA, International Relations) and Oxford University (MPhil, Slavonic and East European Studies; DPhil International Relations).I research, write and teach in two broad areas: Russian politics, foreign policy and security; women and war/gender and conflict. My areas of expertise include Russia's armed forces, civil-military relations in Russia, Russian security policy, Russia's women soldiers, feminist approaches to security. I am currently working on several projects related to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. I have written (with Veronica Kitchen, Waterloo University, Canada) about heroism and global politics.
Research Interests
Foreign Policy
Gender and Politics
Military Intervention
Nuclear Weapons
Post-Communist Politics
Conflict Processes & War
Ukraine Crisis
Russian Military
Gender And Militaries
Countries of Interest
Russia
Ukraine
My Research:
My work on Russia has tended to focus on issues of security, the military and defence policy. I have written on Soviet and Russian nuclear weapons, strategic thought, the conflict in Chechnya, military reform, women soldiers and civil-military relations. My interests in this area lie primarily in exploring the relationship between security, defence, politics and society, although I have also written on the Russian election protests of 2011-12. My research on Russia's women soldiers prompted my interest in women soldiers more broadly. I have written about women and war and women and state militaries and spent three years as the lead editor for Minerva: Journal of Women and War. I was a contributing editor to a collection of letters written by a member of the US Women's Army Corps and worked with the family to choose and edit the letters and to write historical context-setting pieces for them. I have recently published an article about the gendered economic insecurities of the crisis in Ukraine, which considers the impact on households and women's labour of the cross-cutting pressures of conditions set by international financial institutions and the ongoing war in the Donbas. I am currently working on several interlinked projects. One is an article co-authored with Veronica Kitchen at Waterloo University about the political significance of the heroic narratives that are developing around the COVID-19 pandemic. This article builds on the research that Veronica and I did for the volume we co-edited on heroism and global politics, which explores heroism as a social construction that is utilised by political leaders, movements and governments. In another project I am also applying the theme of gender and heroism to the case of perhaps the most famous soldier and prisoner of war of the current conflict in Ukraine: Nadiya Savchenko.I am also working on a book manuscript that takes a feminist security studies approach to the Ukraine crisis, examining the various ways that the agency of women, both individually and collectively, are shaping and influencing events, and exploring the insights that a sensitivity to gendered power relations can bring to our understanding of the continuing battles over politics and security in Ukraine.
Publications:
Journal Articles:
This paper analyses the gendered circuits of violence that create and sustain economic insecurity in Ukraine. Drawing on feminist political economy analysis of the dependence of structural adjustment programmes on women’s labor, and feminist security studies critical analysis of the negative effects of militaries on human security, the paper shows how IFI-imposed austerity measures in Ukraine are inextricable from processes of militarisation. While the gendered impacts of each of these distinct processes have been explored, this paper empirically demonstrates how IFI loan conditionalities and militarisation intensify and reinforce one another precisely through the burdens they place on households and especially on women in the context of conflict.
Article provides a detailed examination of speeches by Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev to shed light on the subtle shifts in presidential discourse around Russia's nuclear weapons.
Books Written:
This edited collection problematises the idea of heroism and explores how and why it functions in societies, in political communities, and in global politics. The book argues that heroism is socially constructed, that the heroic narrative is often gendered, and that it is often used as tool for building political communities.
This edited collection of letters tells the story of Mollie Weinstein Schaffer, a young Jewish woman from the Detroit area who joined the Women's Army Corps and served in London during the Blitz, in post-Liberation France and in Germany after the surrender of the Nazis.
Edited volume that explores a range of intersections between the Russian military and society, engaging with questions of civil-military relations beyond the level of political and military leaderships
Book explores the place of ballistic missile defence in Soviet and Russian politics, strategic thought and diplomacy.
Book Chapters:
Exposure to affective depictions of soldiers with domesticated animals such as cats and dogs encourages civilian audiences to view soldiers, militaries and even the aims of war with sympathy and approval. This chapter argues that Russia and Ukraine are currently engaged in parallel processes of creating and disseminating such depictions in order to rehabilitate the reputations of their armed forces and garner support for their military operations in eastern Ukraine. This positioning of soldiers’ bodies and animals’ bodies together, most notably in photographs circulated on social media, but also in other representations such as statues, is just one example of the wider phenomenon of digital militarism. State militaries and alliances have become very sophisticated and systematic about the use of digital technologies, especially social media and the internet, to disseminate positive messages and images about soldiers, the armed forces and war. The chapter concludes that the differing degrees of success by Russia and Ukraine can be attributed to factors that are highly dependent on context, demonstrating that militarisation is above all a set of social processes.
This chapter explores gendered dimensions of the contemporary American construction of military heroism, considering how heroism and the military interact with masculinity to create a particular, complex form of military masculinity. Through analysis of the three most prestigious US military valour medals awarded fo soldiers who fought in the post-9/11 Global War on Terror, the chapter argues that feminine coded values, traits and behaviours feature are highly-valued, and even dominant in comparison with such traits as aggressiveness, toughness and a willingness to kill the enemy.
This chapter assesses the development of Russia's military capabilities since 2008.
Sets out the role played by the armed forces in Russian politics in the period since the collapse of the USSR.
Discusses the roles that women play in state militaries around the world
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
Interviewed on 4 January about the Russian response to the New Year's Day attack by Ukraine on hundreds of newly mobilised Russian soldiers
Interviewed on 20 February 2023 about US President Biden's trip to Kyiv
Interviewed about Russia's war in Ukraine on 2 March
Interviewed about the Biden-Putin summit on June 16
Interviewed about Russia's relationship with Belarus on August 10
Interviewed about Russia's crackdown on dissent in advance of the upcoming parliamentary elections and about Russia's view of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan on September 1
Interviewed on 28 December about the Russian Supreme Court decision to ban the human rights organisation Memorial
Interviewed on 1 July 2020 about the implications of Russia's nationwide vote on constitutional reform that would give Vladimir Putin the opportunity to remain president until 2036.
Interviewed as part of a panel on the protests in Belarus and what might happen next on the programme Round Table, which aired on 3 September.
Radio Appearances:
Interviewed by Brian Crombie for his drive time programme on 12 May 2023
Interviewed on the programme "Flashpoint Ukraine" on 18 April about Russia's war in Ukraine
Interviewed on 9 May about Putin's Victory Day speech and the implications for the war in Ukraine (interview starts at 1:07:30 into the recording)
Interviewed about Russia's Committee of Soldiers' Mothers and their anti-war activism in relation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Interviewed about the role of oligarchs in Russian politics
Interviewed on Air Talk with Larry Mantle about Russia's war in. Ukraine and the development of Ukrainian President Zelensky's reputation as a hero
Interviewed in January about Alexei Navalny's return to Russia
Interviewed in January about Donald Trump's second impeachment
Interviewed about the Swiss Army's efforts to increase the proportion of women they recruit. Interview starts 28 minutes into the recording.
Interviewed on Sunday Supplement on 19 July about the release of the Russia Report by the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee
Interviewed on 21 July about the release of the Russia Report by UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee
Interviewed throughout the 2 hour morning news programme (acting as the "presenter's friend") on 4 November about the results of the US presidential election
Newspaper Quotes:
Quoted in Rebecca Armitage and Riley Stuart, "Putin dithered as troops marched on Moscow - it could be the beginning of the end for his 'power vertical'"
"A morale problem among Russian forces could pose a risk to Vladimir Putin's future military campaigns"
Quoted extensively in this article in a Swiss Sunday newspaper about Ukraine's women soldiers
Quoted in "War brings Ukraine's women new roles and new dangers" by Megan Specia and Emile Ducke
quoted in "Why is Ukraine coming up so much in American politics?" by Amber Phillips
"Navalny a dominant opposition figure, even from prison". Appeared 24 April. Quoted in this online article.
"Belarus dissident's 'confession' video suggests coercion and torture, experts and advocates say", 25 May
"Anti-Kremlin protests in remote Russian city after local governor fired", 2 August. Quoted and short video clip of interview included in the online article.
"As you follow the James Bond-like tales of Babchenko and Browder this week, remember the other Russian journalists who weren't so lucky", 31 May
"Trump has replaced Putin as the world's most unpredictable leader", 11 April
"Trump likely to be anything but a 'normal' US president", 18 January
Blog Posts:
"Women and the War in Ukraine"
Gendered Economic Insecurities in Ukraine, 9 November
"Putin's Constitutional Reforms: The Rise of an Ancien Regime?", 7 July
"Watching Trump with our students", 4 May
"Syria, emotion and Trump's presidential masculinity"
"Donald Trump's Masculinity: It's not what you think", 6 November
Other:
"Ukraine war: why Russian soldiers' mothers aren't demonstrating the strong opposition they have in previous conflicts", co-authored with Natasha Danilova
"Ukraine war: attitudes to women in the military are changing as thousands serve on the front lines" co-authored with Anna Kvit
"Ukraine war: what the last 12 months has meant for the ordinary Russian soldier", 16 February
"Ukraine war 12 months on: how Volodymyr Zelensky became the nation's unlikely hero"
"Ukraine recruits women soldiers. Why doesn't Russia?" 13 June 2023
"Russia's military wives and mothers are challenging Putin's war on Ukraine" co-authored with Natasha Danilova, 7 August
"Wagner Group boss and Belarus's president are still manoeuvring for power", 17 July
"Gorbachev and glasnost: how his fragile legacy of free speech has been destroyed by Putin"
"Ukraine war: Belarus is not yet committed to a closer military partnership with Russia - here's why"
"Ukraine war: families of unhappy Russian conscripts could undermine Kremlin's war effort"
"Roman Protasevich: dissident Belarus journalist whose defiance enraged Europe's last dictator", 25 May
"Biden and Putin's first meeting won't reset US relations with Russia", 15 June 2021
"Women have served in the armed forces for decades, but the military is still a man's world", 28 July
"Belarus: Lukashenko threatens to turn off the gas to western Europe as migrant crisis deepens", 12 November
"Belarus: Opposition pressure continues inside and outside the country - will it work?"
"Belarus: What Role Could Russia Play in Alexander Lukashenko's Future?" 21 August
"NHS 'heroes' should not have to risk their lives to treat coronavirus patients". Coauthored with Veronica Kitchen. 20 April
"Vladimir Putin has grown into a Russian hero, so where does he go from here?", 22 January
"Losses for Vladimir Putin's United Russia in Moscow Elections Put Down a Marker for the Future", 10 September
"Women candidates break records in the 2018 US midterm elections", 7 November 2018
"Vladimir Putin: How to Understand the Russian President's View of the World", 18 March
"How the mothers of dead soldiers may be what reins in Vladimir Putin's ambitions", 22 January
"The British Army's Belonging campaign finally recognises that masculinity has changed". Article discussing the implications of the British Army's new recruitment campaign for the evolution of militarised masculinity