Antonia Dawes works on racism, antiracism and cultural theory. Her monograph Race Talk (2020) is about race and racism in southern Italy. Her most recent book England’s Military Heartland (2025), co-authored with Vron Ware, Mitra Pariyar and Alice Cree, explores what it means to live next to a military base. The book questions how war blurs the boundaries between military and civilian, and what can or cannot be addressed by the use of lethal violence, sanctioned and organised by the state.

Reviews of England's Military Heartland:

'A thoughtful and human account of the enmeshment of the military into the landscapes of everyday life […] As we enter a renewed phase of militarised geo-politics, this work becomes more urgent than ever.' Gargi Bhattacharyya, Director of the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation

‘Urgent, important, and poignantly recounted.' Laleh Khalili, author of Sinews of War and Trade

‘Exposes the remarkable extent to which militarisation is shaping not only the lives of humans, but the character and quality of the land on which they and other creatures live.' Cynthia Enloe, author of Twelve Feminist Lessons of War

‘England's military heartland should be read by anyone concerned with the UK's military posture and will be an eye-opener to many.' Paul Rogers, Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at Bradford University and author of The Insecurity Trap: A Short Guide to Transformation

Research interests

• antiracism, activism and social movements
• cultural theory
• militarisation and militarism
• postcolonialism
• race and ethnicity
• racial capitalism and abolition

Teaching

• 4SSES005 Power, Inequality and Social Change
• 5SSES002 The Uses of Theory
• 5SSES007 Race, Ethnicity and Society
• 7SSEMO72 Race, Racisms and Education

PhD supervision

Antonia is happy to supervise doctoral projects that centralise the above research interests in relation to different geographies, histories and empirical contexts