Your conference team
Dr Georgina Holmes – Conference Chair
Georgina is a Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at The Open University and a Lecturer in Politics at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on gender and global security governance, peacekeeping and security sector reform and on organisational change in IOs. She founder member and co-convenor of the BISA Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working Group. She has published widely in academic journals including in Security Dialogue, International Peacekeeping, Millennium: Journal of International Relations and The RUSI Journal and is the author of Women and War in Rwanda: Gender, Media and the Representation of Genocide (I.B. Tauris, 2013; paperback 2020).
Professor Kurt Mills – Conference Chair
Kurt was until recently Professor of International Relations and Human Rights at the University of Dundee. His research focuses on the development of international norms and institutions related to human rights, humanitarianism, international criminal justice, and the responsibility to protect, particularly in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including International Reponses to Mass Atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to Protect, Prosecute, and Palliate. He is an Editor of the journal Global Governance and a member of the Executive Committee of BISA. He was founder and Director of the Scottish Human Rights Defenders Fellowship and served as Vice-Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, Vice-President of the International Studies Association (ISA), and founder and Chair of the ISA Human Rights section.
Juliet Dryden - BISA Director
Juliet has worked in the field of international relations for the last 25 years specialising in programme management, international development/humanitarian affairs and donor relations.
Juliet has previously worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the London School of Economics (LSE Ideas) and for 15 years with the United Nations in Cairo, Gaza and Jerusalem (UNRWA, UNOCHA, UNOHCHR). Her most recent position prior to joining BISA was at the West Asia - North Africa (WANA) Institute in Amman where she was the Director of Programmes. Juliet holds an MA in International Relations from the University of East Anglia.
Juliet was also elected as a member of the Chatham House Council in July 2021.
Outside of BISA, Juliet loves reading political biographies, outdoor swimming, spending time with her family and living a quiet life after years of living dangerously!
Katie Burt - Administration and Events Assistant
Katie joined BISA in September 2022 after a varied administrative career working in Formula 1, academic publishing, market research, recruitment, and film production.
Outside of BISA, Katie is a qualified personal trainer and aspires to walk the South West Coast Path, but until then finds joy in exploring less daunting local footpaths.
Chrissie Elliot-Duxson - Communications Manager
Chrissie has worked in marketing communications for almost 15 years with experience of both the public and private sectors. Her most recent positions prior to joining BISA were at the University of Warwick and spanned marketing, communications, recruitment, student experience and project management.
Chrissie has also run her own business and was formerly the Chair of her local branch of the Federation of Small Businesses as well as Chair of Coventry and Warwickshire First Young Professionals.
Outside of BISA Chrissie is a singer/songwriter, reviews gigs for Birmingham Live and enjoys travelling.
Freya Jones - BISA Administrator
Freya joined BISA as Administrator in January 2021 on a part-time basis alongside her other roles as a School Bursar and a Ticketing Administrator for the Friends of Oxford Botanic Garden. Previously she worked as an Account Director for an Event Management agency for nine years, organising a variety of events across the globe.
Outside of BISA, Freya enjoys Pilates and reading (when time allows!), and has recently taken up playing the piano again after a 25 year hiatus.
Dr Naomi Head - Senior Lecturer (Politics), University of Glasgow
Naomi is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Glasgow. Prior to this she held positions at the University of Leeds where she was a Lecturer and Aberystwyth University where she was an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow. Her current research explores the politics of empathy and emotions in contexts of occupation and war, and she is currently focusing on the Human Terrain System adopted by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan along with a wider focus on the relationships between emotions, gender, culture, colonialism and counterinsurgency. She has published widely in academic journals including in Review of International Studies, International Theory, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of International Political Theory, Journal of Global Ethics and is the author of Justifying Violence: Communicative Ethics and the Use of Force in Kosovo (University of Manchester press). Naomi was co-founder and former convenor of the British International Studies Association Working Group on Emotions in Politics and International Relations, and an elected BISA Trustee (2020 - 22).
Dr Ty Solomon - Senior Lecturer (Politics), University of Glasgow
Ty joined the School of Social and Political Sciences as Lecturer in September 2013. He earned his PhD from the University of Florida and previously worked at the University of South Florida. Much of his research has explored the overlapping influences of language, identity, and emotion in the politics of security and foreign policy. He is the author of The Politics of Subjectivity in American Foreign Policy Discourses (University of Michigan Press), and articles in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Cooperation and Conflict, Millennium, International Studies Review, and New Political Science. His current work and interests include conceptualizing international relations through micropolitical approaches and the everyday, emotions and power, the politics of space and place, and the role of time/temporality in politics.
Dr Andrew Judge - Lecturer (International Relations), University of Glasgow
Andy joined the School of Social and Political Sciences as a lecturer in 2016, having previously worked at the University of Strathclyde. His research interests lie at the intersection of international security, global energy politics, and political education. Most of his work to date has focused on the varied forms and effects of energy securitisation across different settings and contexts. His current research focuses on two key areas: 1) the global energy transition as a process of international ordering; and 2) what’s the point of learning about Politics and International Relations?
Dr Ian Paterson - Lecturer, University of Glasgow
Ian joined the School of Social and Political Sciences in September 2018 and currently works as a Lecturer in International Relations. His main research and teaching interests lie in the areas of international security studies and security theory, with a specialised focus on securitisation and migration politics. He is particularly interested in the theoretical and methodological development of securitisation theory, including its under-theorised conceptual-twin, desecuritisation, and broader attempts to 'contest' security. His work on these topics has been published in the European Journal of International Security, International Relations, the British Journal of International Relations, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Political Studies.
If you'd like to contact the conference team please email conferences@bisa.ac.uk.