I am a NU Academic Track (NUAcT) Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Politics & Sociology at Newcastle University. My research as part of this Fellowship is orientated around the theme 'Critical Martial Geographies', and focuses on critically re-examining the sites and bodies of military violence.
I am currently Principal Investigator on an ESRC New Investigator project 'Conflict, Intimacy, and Military Wives: A Lively Geopolitics' (£300,000), alongside Hannah West and Workie Ticket Theatre CIC. Using online participatory theatre with military spouses across the UK, this research explores how 'conflict', as a fluid complex of violence, plays out in intimate domestic spaces and personal relationships.
I also worked with Professor Vron Ware (Kingston University), Dr Antonia Dawes (Kings College London), and Dr Mitra Pariyar (Kingston University) as a Research Associate on a Leverhulme Trust funded project titled 'The Military in our Midst: War Preparation and Community on Salisbury Plain'. This project investigates the impact of unprecedented policy decisions designed to integrate the armed forces in civil society in the super garrison town of Tidworth in Wiltshire.
Before starting at Newcastle University in October 2018, I completed a BA (Hons), MA, and PhD all at Durham University. My PhD project, titled 'The Hero, The Monster, The Wife: Geographies of Remaking and Reclaiming the Contemporary Military Hero' explored how the sovereign subject of the military hero is brought into recognition in popular culture and the everyday. Using four diverse 'sites', specifically the Plymouth military community theatre project Boots at the Door, the Invictus Games, Help for Heroes, and the Military Wives Choir, this research focused on thinking anew about how contemporary war functions.
Other recent projects:
'Women Warriors' (Newcastle University Social Justice Fund; Arts Council England): This collaborative project with Workie Ticket Theatre CIC and women veterans in the North East of England used participatory feminist theatre to explore the lived experiences of women in the military. This project was featured on 'Look North', BBC Radio Newcastle, and Forces TV.
'Dramatizing the home front: The lively politics of gendered militarism' (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship): This work explored the critical potential of participatory theatre as research method in critical military studies. In particular, it developed my doctoral work with the Military Wives Choir and considered how participatory community theatre can give flesh to the labour undertaken by women married to servicemen.
Wider areas of expertise:
Critical Military Studies
Feminist Geopolitics
Political Geography
Creative Methods
Selected grants and awards:
August 2020 - August 2022: ESRC New Investigator (£299,999.09)
January 2019: Pioneer Award, Newcastle University (£5,000)
November 2018: Newcastle University Social Justice Fund (£5,000)
Oct 2018 - Oct 2019: ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (£94,892.56)
Email: alice.cree@newcastle.ac.uk
Twitter: @AliceCree
Research Website: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/alicecree.html