Dr Brendan Maartens BA, MA, PhD, PGCertHE

Personal Statement

I specialise in political and military communication. At the broadest level, I am interested in how governments and armed forces 'sell' themselves to ordinary citizens, a process that I explore through analyses of large-scale advertising and public relations campaigns and more expansive longue durée studies. Part of my work involves investigations of print, broadcast and digital media and invites investigations of media effects. Part entails explorations of public spectacles, such as recruiting rallies, military tattoos and political oratory. This second aspect of my writing is more closely aligned with cultural studies and in exploring it and mediated promotion I try to bridge the gap between media and cultural studies. I also produce research that is historical in nature and have published in journals which reflect my capacity for multi-disciplinary scholarship. To date, I have reviewed work for Media History, Media, War & Conflict, Media, Culture & Society, British Contemporary History, Law and History Review, Corporate Communications: An International Journal and Information and Culture: A Journal of History. I also review annual abstracts to the International History of Public Relations Conference, an event at which I regularly speak, and was until recently a reviewer for Mauritian Research Council grant applications. I am interested in supervising PhD students working on historical or contemporary investigations of media and war, military recruitment promotion or political communications.