Other News
Rethinking development through more relational, embodied, and dialogic research
A new article, "Dining in the dialogical, listening through the relational: ‘withness-thinking’ for development scholarship and praxis", has been published in Globalizations by PAIS PhD Candidate Raymond Hyma and food researcher Dr Elaine Pratley. The piece explores their respective approaches of listening-based inquiry and food-as-method in peacebuilding and development research.
Twitter polarity and computational propaganda
How (tame) bots impact online political networks
The Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) movement in 2022, one of the largest protest movements in contemporary Iran, developed largely online. A collaboration between researchers from Warwick (PAIS) and Tehran traces the evolution of Persian Twitter before and after the event through networks of retweets, PageRank metric and automatic clustering for community detection. The resulting maps reveal a striking transition from a polarized (pro-state versus anti-state) to a unipolar structure, in contradiction with prior studies. Further evidence from the Twitter corpus and the Iranian context suggest that this shift was influenced by computational propaganda, especially orchestrated hashtag movements. Protesters managed to quickly raise an army of bots that amplified their voice and silenced state supporters for about three months. The study contributes to understanding how Twitter/X can be used to manipulate public discourse, in Iran and beyond.
Open access article, co-authored by Philippe Blanchard (PAIS) in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
Student wins national feminist politics essay prize
Ruby Bowden, who took the second year module Gender Matters in Politics and International Studies (PO241), has been awarded first prize in the PSA Women and Politics Student Essay Prize 2025. Her winning essay, Do you agree that conflating sex work with sex trafficking is harmful? Should feminist perspectives support or challenge this conflation?, was recognised for its clarity of argument, critical insight, and strong engagement with feminist scholarship. Ruby has been awarded £150 for her achievement.
'Horizontal Development': new book on shifting power in aid
A new book, Horizontal Development: Shifting Power and Privilege in Aid, jointly authored by Dr Shonali Banerjee (PAIS, University of Warwick), Professor Anne-Meike Fechter (University of Sussex), and Dr Thabani Mutambasere (University of Edinburgh), boldly reframes international aid.
Get the book from Horizontal Development – Shifting Power and Privilege in Aid | Bristol University Press
Prof. Maria Koinova Gives a Keynote at the First Diaspora Lab at the Ukraine Recovery Conference
Two impactful days at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome (10–11 July 2025) left Professor Maria Koinova and many other participants with a deep sense of appreciation for the resilience and commitment demonstrated by governments, international organizations, civil society, and businesses—all united in their support for Ukraine’s recovery amid immense destruction.