Dr Ross McGarry

Personal Statement

My research interests are broadly situated in the field of critical military studies, working at intersections of sociology, criminology and ethnographic and visual methods. These interests are critical of the damaging experience of military institutionalisation and the harmful presence and practices of ‘militarism’ within civic life and upon civilian landscapes. My research is keenly invested in investigating the harms caused by military institutions, geographies and personnel without being constrained by the research imperatives, funding or directives of the defence estate, its institutions, or its governing bodies. In addition, my research is interested in how ‘class’ exists and operates as the main organising principle in military institutions, and the significance this has for understanding how social inequalities are entrenched and perpetuated in military contexts. Other more conceptual areas of research has explored the subjugated knowledges of “war” and the “military” within criminological literature.

I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas, broadly relating to critical military studies:

- Military harms (broadly defined)
- Class and social inequalities in military settings and contexts
- Military geographies and landscapes (broadly defined)
- Knowledge economies of defence estates and establishments

Current and forthcoming supervised PhD projects:

Pending 2024 PhD (primary supervisor) – A Class-Based Analysis of (Former) UK Armed Forces Personnel. Fully funded Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) 1+3 Standard PhD Studentship, awarded via the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP), co-supervised with Dr Kirsty Morrin and Dr Peter Campbell - forthcoming

2023 to-date PhD (primary supervisor) - Fans, Football and the Totem: An ethnographic investigation of totemism’s contribution to studying regional variances in British football fandom. Fully funded GTF Scholarship from the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, co-supervised with Professor Michael Mair and Dr Laura Naegler - ongoing

2018 to-date PhD (secondary supervisor) - A Comparative Study of Cross-Continental Approaches to Counter-Radicalisation: Evaluating Strategy, Policy and Preventative Practices. Co-supervised with Professor Gabe Mythen - ongoing

Completed supervised PhD projects:

2018 - 2023 PhD (primary supervisor) - Mediating militarism: chronicling 100 years of British ‘military victimhood’ from print to digital, 1918-2018. Fully funded Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) CASE Studentship with The British Library, awarded via the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP), co-supervised with Dr Andrew Kirton and Jason Webber (British Library)

2016 – 2021 PhD (primary supervisor) - Thinking the Prison Affectively: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Official Prison Reports from Three English Prisons. Fully funded GTF Scholarship from the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, co-supervised with Dr Roy Coleman

2012 - 2017 PhD (secondary supervisor) – Policing protest in an age of austerity: How the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) responded to anti-austerity movements after the financial crash. Fully funded GTF Scholarship from the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, co-supervised with Professor Barry Godfrey

Prizes or Honours

• Case Study Award (C-SAP: Criminology Special Interest Group, 2010)

Other Personal Distinctions

• Scholarship in Southern Criminology (Crime and Justice Research Centre, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, 2017)
• PhD Studentship from the Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies, Liverpool Hope University (Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, 2007)