Roland Bleiker
banner
bleiker.bsky.social
Roland Bleiker
@bleiker.bsky.social
Writes about the politics of images & emotions across conflict, security, resistance, humanitarianism. Prof of International Relations UQ. Runs @visualpolitics.bsky.social. https://www.rolandbleiker.com
Pinned
The last evening with the love of my life was a year ago today. It’s been a blur since: time lived without its flow (Denise Riley). So here one of my favorite photos, the url to my Emma tribute and big thanks to those who so kindly supported us during & after. www.rolandbleiker.com/tribute-to-e...
Delighted to join the podcast of the @risjnl.bsky.social - one of my favorite journals - to discuss the topic of my @mybisa.bsky.social keynote in Belfast last June - Seeing and Sensing World Politics - with my colleague @sebkaempf.bsky.social.
In this @risjnl.bsky.social podcast, @bleiker.bsky.social talk to @sebkaempf.bsky.social about ‘seeing and sensing world politics’, the title of his keynote address delivered at #BISA2025.

https://cup.org/4pPo9II
January 16, 2026 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
In this @risjnl.bsky.social podcast, @bleiker.bsky.social talk to @sebkaempf.bsky.social about ‘seeing and sensing world politics’, the title of his keynote address delivered at #BISA2025.

https://cup.org/4pPo9II
January 15, 2026 at 7:35 AM
Big thanks to the Swedish Research Council and, for the invite, sponsorship and work on the application to @linushagstrom.bsky.social, Simon Hollis and Olov Wenell. I look forward to collaborating with them and many other wonderful colleagues at Försvarshögskolan and elsewhere in Sweden.
January 6, 2026 at 7:26 AM
We did not share this when announced because saying yes was only possible by having to assume - impossibly - that Emma will no longer be here: I am grateful to spend most of this year as Olof Palme Visiting Professor at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm. www.vr.se/english/appl...
Olof Palme visiting professorship
The Swedish Research Council has decided that Roland Bleiker, professor in international relations at University of Queensland, Australia, will be the holder of the 2026 Olof Palme visiting professors...
www.vr.se
January 6, 2026 at 7:26 AM
Emma Hutchison co-initiated this ARC project, so we were particularly lucky to be in the room that was just re-named in her memory. There will be a separate and proper thanks to our Head, Katrina Lee-Koo and everyone who so kindly supported this wonderful way of honouring Emma.
December 18, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Thanks to all in-person and online participants in our Visualising Humanitarianism ARC Linkage workshop & esp to co-organisers Anita Schenk, @adarshbadri.bsky.social, Subodha Dilhari and Haneol Mun. Photo-credit and thus absent from the picture: Michael Aird. rolandbleiker.com/visualising-hu…
December 18, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Here a video of Michael Barnett’s amazing Emma Hutchison Memorial Lecture on Mobilising Compassion. Comments by Bina D’Costa and Fiona Terry. Chaired by Katrina Lee Koo. Introduced by Heather Zwicker and myself. Thanks so much to everyone who came along. www.rolandbleiker.com/news/michael...
December 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Calibri has for long been our default font, but even more so after reading this NYT article today on the US State Department’s new “typeface policy.” 🙂. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
December 10, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
Help us make a difference today! 👉 https://www.bisa.ac.uk/give/donate

“Having seen the incredible talent of young BISA scholars, and knowing the difficult situation they face at the beginning of their career, the AspIRing Scholars Fund is a cause well worth supporting.” - Roland Bleiker 🎉
December 2, 2025 at 12:01 PM
ABC Radio National offers a fascinating interview with Michael Barnett about mobilizing compassion and his first Emma Hutchison Memorial Lecture, held last week at UQ. Lecture video still to come. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Can you mobilise compassion? - ABC listen
It feels like compassion is dwindling in the current political climate. Can compassion be mobilised again? Or is the age of humanitarianism over? Michael Barnett is in Australia for the Annual Emma Hu...
www.abc.net.au
December 8, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reminder: please join us in-person next Thursday for the first Annual Emma Hutchison Memorial Lecture with

Prof Michael Barnett (George Washington University) on Mobilising Compassion

4 Dec 4.30-5.45 followed by reception. All welcome but RSVP here: polsis.uq.edu.au/event/8251/a...
November 28, 2025 at 5:56 AM
The last evening with the love of my life was a year ago today. It’s been a blur since: time lived without its flow (Denise Riley). So here one of my favorite photos, the url to my Emma tribute and big thanks to those who so kindly supported us during & after. www.rolandbleiker.com/tribute-to-e...
November 23, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Available to watch: our most recent @visualpolitics.bsky.social event: Eliza Garnsey and Cait Hamilton discuss their fascinating and unusual new book Creating Justice: Human Rights and Art in Conversation. www.rolandbleiker.com/news/https/w...
Available to Watch: Eliza Garnsey and Caitlin Hamilton on Art and Human Rights — Roland Bleiker
Eliza Garnsey and Caitlin Hamilton discuss their new book Creating Justice: Human Rights and Art in Conversation (Rowman and Littlefield 2025).
www.rolandbleiker.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
NEW ISSUE from @risjnl.bsky.social -

Review of International Studies - Volume 51 - Issue 5 - https://cup.org/43fcXN1
November 11, 2025 at 12:40 AM
On the role of icons in news media: Cormac Opdebeeck-Wilson’s insightful new essay open access in @millennjournal.bsky.social. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The Icon, Distributed: The Spectral Visual Politics of News Photography - Cormac Opdebeeck Wilson, 2025
Photographic icons provide broad audiences with a stable resource for public discourse and a sense of continuity. However, changes to our media landscape, most ...
journals.sagepub.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Here a blog that summarises my chapter in Andrew Carrr’s book in memory of Brendan Sargeant, one of Australia’s leading strategic thinkers.  I use my previous visual autoethnography of Korean security to engage Sargeant’s concept of the strategic imagination. www.rolandbleiker.com/blog/aesthet...
Aesthetic Imagination and Security Policy — Roland Bleiker
By Roland Bleiker
www.rolandbleiker.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Looks excellent, Ben. Congratulations. I look forward to reading more carefully.
November 10, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
🎆 NEW OA ARTICLE ALERT 🎆

'Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots' in @risjnl.bsky.social

How do populist publics visually represent themselves & how have shifts in visual technologies altered this process?
Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core
Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots
www.cambridge.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Please join us for the first Annual Emma Hutchison Memorial Lecture:

Michael Barnett (GWU) on Mobilising Compassion.
Comments by Bina D’Costa (ANU) and Fiona Terry (ICRC).

4 Dec 2025 4.30-5.45pm followed by reception.

All welcome. More info & RSVP here: www.rolandbleiker.com/news/emma-hu...
November 6, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
My article “Visualising the COVID-19 Pandemic through Tropes: An Autoethnographic and Critical Perspective” is finally out in the @cambridgecria.bsky.social
1/
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Visualising the COVID-19 pandemic through tropes: an autoethnographic and critical perspective
The article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified a narrative of uncertainty, perpetuating existing social hierarchies related to gender and racial discrimination. Using a critical vis...
www.tandfonline.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Join us in person or online for our next @visualpolitics.bsky.social event: Eliza Garnsey and Caitlin Hamilton discuss their new book Creating Justice: Human Rights and Art in Conversation. Wed 5 Nov 5-6pm BNE time (UTC+10), 39a/501. Details & Zoom Rego: www.rolandbleiker.com/news/upcomin...
Upcoming Event: Eliza Garnsey and Caitlin Hamilton on Art and Human Rights — Roland Bleiker
Eliza Garnsey and Caitlin Hamilton join us online to discuss their new book Creating Justice: Human Rights and Art in Conversation (Rowman and Littlefield 2025).
www.rolandbleiker.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Roland Bleiker
Dr. Katrina Lee-Koo put together a fantastic Editor's Collection for RIS on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Resolution 1325 was passed 25 years ago and these articles reflect on where we came from, and what is still missing ⤵️

buff.ly/5hlzhJM
October 23, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Huge congratulations to Haneol Mun on a fantastic Ph.D. project presentation (SOI) today for a great thesis on The Political Power of Cinema in East Asia. Thanks to readers Nicole George, @minranliu.bsky.social and Anais Hull and chair Andrew Phillips.
October 24, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Available to watch: our most recent @visualpolitics.bsky.social Program event with Marguerite La Caze, Professor of Philosophy at UQ, who discusses her new book Film and Everyday Resistance (Northwestern UP 2024). Chaired by Cormac Opdebeeck Wilson. www.rolandbleiker.com/past-events/...
October 13, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Please join us in person or online for our next @visualpolitics.bsky.social event: Prof Marguerite La Caze (Philosophy UQ) discusses her book Film and Everyday Resistance (Northwestern UP). Wed 8 Oct, 5-6pm Brisbane time (UTC+10), 39a/501. Zoom Rego: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/uq-visual-...
October 6, 2025 at 11:18 AM