Dr Stephan Engelkamp

Dr Engelkamp is a Lecturer in International Relations Education at the Department of War Studies. He previously lectured at the University of Muenster and at the University of Magdeburg in Germany and was visiting professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Lille. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate School of Politics Muenster, Germany.

His main research interests are global security governance and processes of normalisation in global and European politics; critical approaches to peace and conflict; international relations theory (especially critical norms research and post-colonial approaches); and political anthropology. His research has appeared in journals such as Alternatives, International Studies Perspectives and European Review of International Studies.

Research Interests

Stephan’s research interests revolve around questions of norms and normalisation processes, the politics of identity construction, and policymaking in the field of International Relations and European Governance. In this regard, he is particularly interested in connecting critical and interpretive approaches in IR with anthropological theories and methods.

His previous research, which resulted in his cumulative PhD thesis titled ‘Writing Norms. Reflexive Norms Research as Political Practice’, develops a critical approach to study norms in international relations inspired by postcolonial, feminist, and anthropological research. It was applied to normalisation processes in state practices in both Western and Non-Western contexts, including a case study on representations of military responsibility in German popular culture.

Building on this work, the next phase of his research will focus on the dynamics and discursive shifts in the moral grammar of discourse in German (and European) security and identity politics. Empirically, He is interested in how particular narratives become ‘normal’ and how local forms of resistance emerge, for example in postcolonial contexts of ‘nation-building’, in Germany’s struggles of remembering its past, or in the EU’s attempts of constructing a common identity. Finally, he is interested in experimenting with alternative forms of academic writing, such as auto-ethnographic writing, drawing on fictional literature and popular culture.

Publications

Research articles:

"Visualizing peace - The state of the art". Peace & Change 2020 (45:1): 5-27. (with K. Roepstorff and A. Spencer)

"Moving images: Visual metaphors of peace in the movie Mango Dreams". Peace & Change 2020 (45:1): 126-150. (with K. Roepstorff and A. Spencer)

"Normalising knowledge? Constructivist norm research as political practice". European Review of International Studies 2016 (3:3): 52-62. (with K. Glaab and J. Renner)

"Writing norms. Constructivist norm research and the politics of ambiguity" Alternatives: Global – Local - Political 2015 (40:3-4): 201-218. (with K. Glaab)

"Office hours. How (critical) norm research can regain its voice". World Political Science Review 2014 (10:1): 33–61. (with K. Glaab and J. Renner)

"Discussions across borders: A German-American partnership". Journal of Political Science Education, 2013 (9:4): 474-486. (with P. Zeiser and D. Fuchs)

"'It's a family affair'. Germany as a responsible actor in popular culture discourse". International Studies Perspectives 2012 (13:3): 235-253. (with P. Offermann)

Edited volumes and special issues:

Kritische Normenforschung in Deutschland. Neue Wege in den Internationalen Beziehungen [Critical Norms Research in Germany. New Paths in International Relations], Baden-Baden: NOMOS. 2021. (ed. with K. Glaab and A. Graf)

"Special Issue on the politics, policy, and pedagogy of visualising peace." Peace & Change 2020 (45:1): 5-27. (ed. with K. Roepstorff and A. Spencer)

"Transformation and conflict in Southeast Asia. Special issue." ASIEN 2008 (109). (ed. with J. Platenkamp and S. Feske)

 Chapters in edited volumes:

"International Conflict Studies: Critical Perspectives on Conflict and Security", In Introduction to War Studies (ed. Michael Goodman). Forthcoming. London: Edgar Elder. (with V. Jabri, L. Ansems de Vries and K. Phull)

"Responsibility as political beauty? Derrida and the politics of responding to others", In Routledge Handbook on Responsibility in International Theory (eds. A. Vetterlein and H. Hansen-Magnusson). 2021. London: Routledge.

"Kritische Normenforschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Eine Einleitung." [Critical Norms Research in International Relations. An introduction] In Kritische Normenforschung in Deutschland, eds. Engelkamp, Glaab and Graf. 2021. Baden-Baden: NOMOS. (with K. Glaab and A. Graf)

"Normenvehikel: Wie erfasst wird, was sich der Erkenntnis entzieht." [Vehicles of norms: How to grasp what escapes perception] In Kritische Normenforschung in Deutschland, eds. Engelkamp, Glaab and Graf 2021. Baden-Baden: NOMOS (with K. Glaab and A. Graf)

"Kritische Normenforschung: Ein Forschungsprogramm." [Critical Norms Research: A research agenda] In Kritische Normenforschung in Deutschland, eds. Engelkamp, Glaab and Graf. 2021. Baden-Baden: NOMOS (with K. Glaab and A. Graf)

"Bilder des Friedens? Die metaphorische Visualisierung von Frieden im Film". [Images of peace? The metaphorical visualisation of peace in film] In: Visualitaet und Weltpolitik, eds. Axel Heck and Gabi Schlag 2020. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 215-244. (with K. Roepstorff and A. Spencer)

"Die Praxis der visuellen Analyse. Ein Dialog". [The practice of visual analysis. A dialogue.] In: Visualitaet und Weltpolitik, eds. A. Heck and G. Schlag 2020. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 311-346. (with L. Bogerts, et al)

"The politics of the exception as fiction: Reading Agamben through The Batman." In: The interplay between Political Theory and movies. Bridging two worlds, ed. U. Hamenstädt 2019. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 33-48.

"Memento Reloaded: Constructivism vs. Historical Materialism." In: Politische Theorie im Film, ed. U. Hamenstädt 2016. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 215-234 (with U. Hamenstädt).Book reviews and policy papers:

"Political contestation and the reform of European Fisheries Policy." ZIN Discussion Paper Series 2017 (1). Münster (with D. Fuchs)

"Performing Green Europe? A Narrative Analysis of European Fisheries Policy." Sustainable Governance Discussion Paper 01/2016 (1). Münster (with D. Fuchs)

"Rezension. Franziska Müller. Im Namen liberaler Normen? Gouvernementalität in den EU-AKP-Beziehungen. Baden-Baden. NOMOS 2015." Politische Vierteljahresschrift 2016 (57:4): 669–671.

"Rezension. Weiss, Stefani/Joscha Schmierer (Hg.). 2007. Prekäre Staatlichkeit und internationale Ordnung. VS Verlag." Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik 2009 (2:1): 3–4.

Teaching 

He teaches the following modules:

• 7SSWN080 Global Governance of Conflict and Security: Theories & Methods (co-convenor)
• 7SSWN079 Theories, Concepts and Methods in International Relations (co-convenor)

PhD Supervision

• Aniruddha Saha
• Yingtao Li

Dr Engelkamp is interested in supervising PhD students in the fields of normative approaches in IR Theory and Critical Security Studies.