Dr. Christine Andrä
© Christine Andrä
Research Associate
NameDr. Christine Andrä
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Christine Andrä is a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Chair of International Politics. Prior to joining the Institute of Political Science, Technical University Dresden, she was a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University (UK).
Christine obtained her Ph.D. in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. Her doctoral studies were funded by an Aberystwyth University Doctoral Career Development Scholarship, a Fulbright Scholarship for Visiting Researchers to the United States, and a Teach@Tübingen Research Scholarship. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Rhetoric from the University of Tübingen, an M.A. in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research from the University of Frankfurt, and an M.Res. in Political and Social Research from the European University Institute in Florence. She was a Research Assistant at Bonn International Center for Conversion (2011/12), a Faculty Fellow at the School of International Service, American University in Washington, DC (2016/17), and a Teaching and Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen (2018/19).
Table of contents
Research
Within the fields of International Relations (IR) and Peace and Conflict Studies, Christine conducts both foundational and applied research with a dual focus on violent conflicts and their aftermaths and on the relationship between knowledge and (international) politics. Her research interests include post-conflict politics, history and philosophy of science and of knowledge, historical and critical IR, social theory, post- and decolonial theory, art/craft and international politics, as well as qualitative-interpretive, historical, and creative methods and methodologies. Previous research focused on the nexus of natural resources and armed conflict.
At the moment, Christine is working on two research projects:
Problematizing war in international politics offers a critical historical analysis of the emergence of war as an object of knowledge and action. Based on Christine’s doctoral thesis, “A Genealogy of the Problem of War in International Politics”, the book project draws on concepts and methods from social theory, postcolonial theory, and history of knowledge as well as on original primary sources collected from archives in the United States and Europe. The project analyzes how the contemporary notion of war as a phenomenon that can be empirically studied and practically acted upon first emerged during the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and it develops this analysis into a critique of contemporary understandings of the problem of war.
(Un-)Stitching the Subjects of Colombia’s Reconciliation Process/(Des-)tejiendo miradas sobre los sujetos en proceso de reconciliación en Colombia analyzes the changing subjectivities of former FARC fighters in the process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) in Colombia, as well as how these ex-combatants are perceived by the communities in which they now settle. Within this collaborative research project conducted jointly with colleagues from Aberystwyth University (UK) and the University of Antioquia (Colombia), Christine is carrying out a meta-analysis of the project’s methodology (including narrative interviews, participatory textile making, and arts exhibitions) to explore the potential of creative, material and narrative methods for peace and conflict research.
Teaching
At Technical University Dresden, Christine teaches undergraduate and postgraduate seminars on IR theory, international institutions, peace and conflict research, and EU foreign and security policy. She previously taught a variety of courses in political science, IR, and peace and conflict studies at the University of Tübingen, Aberystwyth University, and the University of Frankfurt. In 2021, Christine received the Teaching Award of the Society of Friends and Supporters of TU Dresden.
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles
Christine Andrä (2022): “Problematising war: Towards a reconstructive critique of war as a problem of deviance”, Review of International Studies, online first. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/problematising-war-towards-a-reconstructive-critique-of-war-as-a-problem-of-deviance/B53C56EB016EC6C9DEC519EA4CF2273A
Christine Andrä (2022): “Crafting Stories, Making Peace? Creative Methods in Peace Research”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, online first. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03058298211063510.
Beatriz E. Arias López, Christine Andrä, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (2021): “Reflexivity in research teams through narrative practice and textile-making”, Qualitative Research, online first. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14687941211028799
Christine Andrä, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Lydia Cole, Danielle House (2020): “Knowing through needlework: Curating the difficult knowledge of conflict textiles”, Critical Military Studies, 6 (3-4): 341-359. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23337486.2019.1692566.
Chapters in edited volumes
Christine Andrä (2020): “Textiles Making Peace”, in: Oliver Richmond, Gëzim Visoka (eds.): The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies, https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-030-11795-5_125-1#toc.
Monographs
Christine Andrä (2019): A Genealogy of War as a Problem of International Politics. PhD Thesis, Aberystwyth University, https://pure.aber.ac.uk/portal/files/29338163/Andra_Christine.pdf.
Other Publications
Christine Andrä, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (2019): “Konflikttextilien: Analytischer, ästhetischer und politischer Stoff für Friedensforschung und –arbeit”, Wissenschaft und Frieden 37 (4), https://wissenschaft-und-frieden.de/seite.php?artikelID=2396.
Elke Grawert, Christine Andrä (2013): Oil Investment and Conflict in Upper Nile State, South Sudan. BICC Brief 48, Bonn, Germany, www.bicc.de/uploads/tx_bicctools/BICC_brief_48.pdf.
Friedel Hütz-Adams, Marie Müller, Christine Andrä (2012): “Kleinbergbau von Gold: Weltmarkt, Perspektiven auf Probleme und Governance-Ansätze”, in: Friedel Hütz-Adams, Marie Müller (eds.): Auf der Suche nach dem sauberen Gold: Kleinbergbau von Gold in Peru und der DR Kongo, BICC Brief 46, Bonn, Germany, 9-20. www.bicc.de/uploads/tx_bicctools/BICC_brief_46_d.pdf.
Conference papers
“Problematizing war: Towards a critical history of war as a problem of deviance”, EISA Early Career Workshop 'What Do We Know About War?', 09/2021.
“Crafting Stories, Making Peace? Creative, Material and Narrative Methods in Fieldwork with Former FARC Fighters in Rural Colombia”, EWIS Workshop 'Peace in Plural: Decolonial (and) Feminist Approaches to Peace(-building)', geplant für 07/2020, abgesagt wegen Covid-19.
“Problematization as Process, Object and Analytic of Research, and Critique – A Proposal for Problematizing (not just) War Otherwise”, Millennium Conference, London, 10/2019.
“Problematizing War: Towards a Genealogical Analysis”, EISA Conference, Sofia, 09/2019.
“How Not to Take Our Research Methods for Granted: Genealogy as History, Critique, and Practice”, EISA Young Researchers Workshop “Knowing What and How: Research Methods in Complex Environments”, Barcelona, 09/2017.
“Doing Exhibitions and IR Differently: A Conversation about Exhibiting International ‘Conflict Textiles’”, EWIS Workshop “Museums, Exhibitions and the Representation of the International”, Cardiff, 06/2017 (with Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Lydia Cole, Danielle House).
“A Historical Perspective on Conflict Expertise: The Example of the Carnegie Endowment’s ‘Balkan Commission’ (1912-1914)”, ESRC Workshop “Conflict Experts: Methodology, Authority, Impact”, Aberystwyth, 03/2017.
Blog Posts
Christine Andrä, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (2020): “Case Study: (Un)Stitching the subjects of Colombia’s reconciliation process/(Des)tejiendo miradas sobre los sujetos en proceso de reconciliación en Colombia”, Stitchign Together Blog, https://stitchingtogether.net/2020/06/12/case-study-christine-andra-berit-bliesemann-de-guevara-and-colleagues-unstitching-the-subjects-of-colombias-reconciliation-process-destejiendo-miradas-sobre-los-suj/.
Christine Andrä (2020): “Textile efforts for peace”, Stitched Voices Blog, https://stitchedvoices.wordpress.com/2020/03/19/textile-efforts-for-peace/.
Christine Andrä, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Lydia Cole, Danielle House (2019): “Stitching In/Justice: The Political Art of Conflict Textiles”, ARTIJ Blog, https://artij.org/en/blog.html#5.
Outreach
Exhibitions
“Puntadas”, Exhibition of textile narratives by members of the community of Llano Grande, Parque Educativo, Dabeiba, 11/2019 (with Laura Antonia Coral Velásquez and Martha Cecilia Rendón).
“Reminiscencias/Puntadas”, Exhibition of textile narratives by members of the communities of San José de León and Llano Grande brought into conversation with photographs by Christine Delory-Momberger (France) and Gabriel Vieira Posada (Colombia), CreaLab, Medellín (Colombia), 11/2019 (with Beatriz Arias López, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Laura Antonia Coral Velásquez, Laura Cuervo Restrepo, Martha Cecilia Rendón, Berena Torres Marin).
“Stitched Voices/Lleisiau wedi eu Pwytho”, Exhibition of international conflict textiles, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 03-05/2017 (with Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Lydia Cole, Danielle House, as well as Roberta Bacic and Steffan Jones-Hughes). For more information, see: https://stitchedvoices.wordpress.com/2017/08/04/stitched-voices-as-the-beginning-of-conversations/ and https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles/search-quilts2/fullevent1/?id=157.
Invited Talks
‘“A Heart Like Everyone Else’: (Un-) Stitching Colombian Ex-guerrillas’ Experiences of War and Peace”, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, 10/2020 (mit B. Bliesemann de Guevara).
“Wege aus dem Konflikt: Selbst- und Fremdbilder ehemaliger FARC-Kombattant*innen in Kolumbien”, invited talk, Lecture Series “Effects of Peace Operations”, Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, 11/2019.
“Conflict textiles as (not just) visual, (not just) data”, invited talk, Summer Course “Visual Politics, Visual Organisations” (Dvora Yanow), ECPR Summer School on Methods and Techniques, Budapest, 08/2019.
“Knowing violent conflict through textiles: three possible applications in international studies”, University of Birmingham, 11/2017 (with Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Lydia Cole, Danielle House).
“Exhumations of mass graves and transitional justice”, German-Georgian Summer School “Stalin-era mass graves and memorialization”, Tbilisi, 09/2015.
Roundtable Contributions
“Textiling international politics: (Re)making the textures of world politics/IR through textile artefacts, metaphors, and practices”, EISA Conference, 09/2021.
“Visuality and Emotions in International Politics”, BISA Conference, 06/2021.
“Global epistemics: practicing and teaching the epistemics of the global”, Roundtable, EISA Conference, Sofia, 09/2019.
“1919: Myths and IR”, Roundtable, BISA Conference, London, 06/2019.
“Object, Subject & Position: Somatic, Material, and Spatial Forms of Being and Knowing in International Studies”, Innovative Session, BISA Conference, London, 06/2019 (with Lydia Cole).