Dr Federica Caso is interviewed by Dr Cormac Opdebeeck-Wilson about her new book Settler Military Politics: Militarisation and the Aesthetics of War Commemoration (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). The conversation spans a wide range of themes, from conducting research on Indigenous-settler relations to militarisation and masculinity to how the aesthetics of war commemoration is part of a much broader militarised form of governing societies.

Federica is Lecturer in International Relations at La Trobe University. Prior to this, she was a sessional lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, where she obtained her Ph.D. 

Federica’s research focuses on gender and race in the military, war, and peacebuilding.  She also has expertise in visual politics, war commemoration, and settler colonialism. Federica is currently pursuing two research projects. One examines Australia's defence and pro-gender foreign policy as means to engage in the great power competition in the Pacific. The other investigates Indigenous military inclusion. 

In addition to her new book, which we discuss in this session, Federica is the author of several journal articles and book chapters, including, most recently, an essay in Security Dialogue on “Settler militarism: Affective colonial pursuits and the militarized atmosphere of war commemoration.”