Upcoming Presentations and Public Lectures
'Barrels, Blends, and Brand: The Popular Cultural Politics of Whisky', with Ty Solomon and Andrew Judge, Popular Culture and World Politics v17, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK (19 November 2026)
The Gaelic term uisge beatha (‘water of life’) is the etymological origin of the English word ‘whisky’, a geologically-indexed, geographically-designated, high alcohol-by-volume drink made from fermented grain mash that dates back at least 1,000 years. In this paper, we examine the role that whisky plays in international power dynamics within the British Isles (core), the former dominion of the British Empire (semi-periphery), and those lands not directly associated with settler colonialism from Britain (periphery). We begin with a brief examination of what can be called ‘whisky’, assessing the spirit’s geographic provenance, imputed hierarchies of style, and how connoisseurship hails particular markers of prestige, alongside the spatial, environmental, corporate, and governmental aspects of whisky production, regulation, and taxation. In the middle section, we tackle the (popular) cultural politics of drinking whisky, applying a lens of sensory politics to examine how materiality, bodies, affect, and consumption practices – ordering, toasting, entrainment, and narrating – collectively construct ways of seeing, tasting, smelling, and feeling whisky. In the final section, we interrogate Scotland’s employment of whisky as a tool of paradiplomacy and nation branding, via Brand Scotland and VisitScotland’s promotion of whiskey through (im)material heritage, distillery tourism, international festivals, and global trade missions. In the conclusion, we offer a tentative international politics of whisky that situates uisge beatha in a unique position vis-à-vis other alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and non-grain mash spirits) due to its imperial genealogy, geographic specificity, socio-economic scaling, and historically-rooted cultural performances.
The Gaelic term uisge beatha (‘water of life’) is the etymological origin of the English word ‘whisky’, a geologically-indexed, geographically-designated, high alcohol-by-volume drink made from fermented grain mash that dates back at least 1,000 years. In this paper, we examine the role that whisky plays in international power dynamics within the British Isles (core), the former dominion of the British Empire (semi-periphery), and those lands not directly associated with settler colonialism from Britain (periphery). We begin with a brief examination of what can be called ‘whisky’, assessing the spirit’s geographic provenance, imputed hierarchies of style, and how connoisseurship hails particular markers of prestige, alongside the spatial, environmental, corporate, and governmental aspects of whisky production, regulation, and taxation. In the middle section, we tackle the (popular) cultural politics of drinking whisky, applying a lens of sensory politics to examine how materiality, bodies, affect, and consumption practices – ordering, toasting, entrainment, and narrating – collectively construct ways of seeing, tasting, smelling, and feeling whisky. In the final section, we interrogate Scotland’s employment of whisky as a tool of paradiplomacy and nation branding, via Brand Scotland and VisitScotland’s promotion of whiskey through (im)material heritage, distillery tourism, international festivals, and global trade missions. In the conclusion, we offer a tentative international politics of whisky that situates uisge beatha in a unique position vis-à-vis other alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and non-grain mash spirits) due to its imperial genealogy, geographic specificity, socio-economic scaling, and historically-rooted cultural performances.
Past Events
'A "Nuclear Bomb" of Sexual Assaults: A Fanonian Analysis of the Phallus in Contemporary British Anti-Immigration Discourse', with Haro Karkour, British International Studies Association Conference, Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK (3 June 2026)
'Irish (Americans) and the Narrative Politics of the Great Famine', with Michael Toomey, British International Studies Association Conference, Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK (5 June 2026)
"Seeing through the Anthropocene: Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and the Disciplining Power of the Gaze," Centre for Arts, Media and Culture, Edinburgh Napier University (2 December 2025)
'"What Kind of American Are You?" Plotting Civil War within the PWCP Continuum', Popular Culture and World Politics v16, Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal (21 November 2025)
“"A Bullet for the Cause?" The Irish Language, Identity Politics, and Intergenerational Trauma in Kneecap (2024)' with Cahir O’Doherty, British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (20 June 2025)
'England’s First and Last Colony: A Postcolonial Wales?' with Haro Karkour, British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (20 June 2025)
'Navigating Trump 2.0: A Pop-Culture Guide to the Rise of American Fascism from Sinclair Lewis to the Late-Night Deathwatch', British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (19 June 2025)
'Roundtable: Geographies of Media and Popular Culture in the New Age of Anxiety' - Organiser and Chair, American Association of Geographers annual meeting, Detroit, Michigan (25 March 2025)
'A Marvel to Behold or For-Profit Pandering? Disney’s Embrace of Indigenous Recognition, Resistance, and Survivance', 15th Popular Culture and World Politics Conference (PCWP v15), Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (22 November 2024)
'"Do You See What I See?" Visions of the Anthropocene in Serial TV Drama', European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), WS31: Popular Culture and the End of the World: Imagining Dystopia and Utopia in the Anthropocene Epoch at Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Türkiye (5 July 2024)
'Terra Nullius No More! Finland in Geopolitical Imagination after NATO', hosted by the Global Politics and Practice Research Group at Central European University, Vienna, Austria (21 November 2023)
'Geographical Imagination, Genealogy, and Geopolitics in Who Do You Think You Are? ' at the (Em)placing the Popular in Cultural Geography workshop at Coventry University, UK (12 January 2022)
'A Critical Analysis of the Political Geographies of Black Panther', invited keynote at Headington College and Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability workshop, University of Oklahoma (March 26, 2019)
'Extending the Katechon: Religio-Civilizational Vectors in Russia’s Intervention in the Levant', Striking from the Margins Conference: State, Disintegration and Devolution of Authority in the Arab Middle East , American University of Beirut, Lebanon (January 17, 2019)
'Irish (Americans) and the Narrative Politics of the Great Famine', with Michael Toomey, British International Studies Association Conference, Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK (5 June 2026)
"Seeing through the Anthropocene: Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and the Disciplining Power of the Gaze," Centre for Arts, Media and Culture, Edinburgh Napier University (2 December 2025)
'"What Kind of American Are You?" Plotting Civil War within the PWCP Continuum', Popular Culture and World Politics v16, Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal (21 November 2025)
“"A Bullet for the Cause?" The Irish Language, Identity Politics, and Intergenerational Trauma in Kneecap (2024)' with Cahir O’Doherty, British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (20 June 2025)
'England’s First and Last Colony: A Postcolonial Wales?' with Haro Karkour, British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (20 June 2025)
'Navigating Trump 2.0: A Pop-Culture Guide to the Rise of American Fascism from Sinclair Lewis to the Late-Night Deathwatch', British International Studies Association Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland (19 June 2025)
'Roundtable: Geographies of Media and Popular Culture in the New Age of Anxiety' - Organiser and Chair, American Association of Geographers annual meeting, Detroit, Michigan (25 March 2025)
'A Marvel to Behold or For-Profit Pandering? Disney’s Embrace of Indigenous Recognition, Resistance, and Survivance', 15th Popular Culture and World Politics Conference (PCWP v15), Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (22 November 2024)
'"Do You See What I See?" Visions of the Anthropocene in Serial TV Drama', European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), WS31: Popular Culture and the End of the World: Imagining Dystopia and Utopia in the Anthropocene Epoch at Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Türkiye (5 July 2024)
'Terra Nullius No More! Finland in Geopolitical Imagination after NATO', hosted by the Global Politics and Practice Research Group at Central European University, Vienna, Austria (21 November 2023)
'Geographical Imagination, Genealogy, and Geopolitics in Who Do You Think You Are? ' at the (Em)placing the Popular in Cultural Geography workshop at Coventry University, UK (12 January 2022)
'A Critical Analysis of the Political Geographies of Black Panther', invited keynote at Headington College and Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability workshop, University of Oklahoma (March 26, 2019)
'Extending the Katechon: Religio-Civilizational Vectors in Russia’s Intervention in the Levant', Striking from the Margins Conference: State, Disintegration and Devolution of Authority in the Arab Middle East , American University of Beirut, Lebanon (January 17, 2019)