Dr Sorana-Cristina Jude is a Lecturer in Defence Studies at King’s College London and the Joint Services Command and Staff College of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. She situates herself within Critical Military Studies and works at the intersection of feminist international relations, critical geopolitics, and the sociology of emotions.

By investigating security, gender and emotions in (post)colonial and (post)socialist militarized spaces, Dr Jude’s work contributes to a better understanding of military subjectivity, its socio-political utility, and its (mis)use in justifying military violence. Beyond that, Dr Jude is interested in military dissent and anti-militarism, including their cultural expressions across Western and non-Western spaces.

Previously, Dr Jude has held various positions at Newcastle University including British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Lecturer in Politics and respectively, Teaching Fellow in Politics.

Dr Jude completed her PhD in International Politics at Aberystwyth University in 2018. Her doctoral dissertation entitled ‘Israel’s Military: Emotions, Violence and the Limits of Dissent’ was awarded the Best Dissertation Award by the European International Studies Association in 2019.

Research

Dr Jude investigates NATO’s evolving war‑preparedness activities across Central and Eastern Europe, analysing how defence practices intersect with gendered narratives of security, militarism, and societal resilience. A central strand of her work examines how gender and the Women, Peace and Security agenda are mobilised, interpreted, or sidelined within contemporary approaches to societal resilience and war preparedness. She also traces continuities and ruptures in public and institutional discourses about NATO, soldiering, and defence cultures from the Socialist era through the post‑Socialist transformations that shape the region’s engagement with the Alliance.

Previously, Dr Jude examined emotional, gendered, and collective narrative frameworks through which military violence is normalised and rationalised in the context of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. By foregrounding the role of identity, gender and emotions, this research explored how affective logics underpin both the justification of military force and the lived experience of protracted conflict.

Research areas

• Feminist International Relations
• Feminist Theory
• Critical Military Studies
• Emotions/feelings/sentiments/affect
• NATO
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Israel/Palestine
• Popular Culture

Dr Jude welcomes PhD applications in any of these areas.

Teaching

At the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Dr Jude delivers graduate-level teaching and education. She is teaching on the Advanced Command and Staff Course, the flagship course of the Joint Services Command and Staff College of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. She also teaches on the Intermediate Officer Development Programme run by the Royal Air Force Division. At King’s College London, Dr Jude teaches on the International Affairs MA programme (online).

Publications

Edited books

• Sorana-Cristina Jude and Katharine A.M. Wright (2026), Critical Perspectives on NATO: Feminist Insights (Bristol: Bristol University Press).

Book chapters

• Sorana-Cristina Jude (2026), “Allyship and identity in NATO”, in Sorana-Cristina Jude and Katharine A.M. Wright (eds) Critical Perspectives on NATO: Feminist Insights (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2026), pp. 67-88.
• Sorana-Cristina Jude and Katharine A.M. Wright (2026), “NATO: A Critical Perspective’ in Sorana- Cristina Jude and Katharine A.M. Wright (eds) Critical Perspectives on NATO: Feminist Insights (Bristol: Bristol University Press), pp. 1-25.
• Sorana-Cristina Jude (2025), “Returning Home After War: Representations of Romanian Veterans in a Contemporary War Novel (Schije/Shrapnel)”, in Martin Hurcombe (ed) New Directions in War and Culture Studies, pp. 85–108 (London: Routledge).

Policy and impact publications

• Anne-Floor Dekker, Amy Hill, Emine Kaya, Sorana-Cristina Jude and Katharine A. M. Wright (2026), "Holding the Line on Women, Peace and Security: Navigating Pushback and Backsliding in a Time of Global Conflicts" (The Hague: WO=MEN: The Dutch Gender Platform).

Research Articles

• Sorana-Cristina Jude (2024) ‘Fauda and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine: Gender, Emotions, and Visual Representations of Complicity in International Politics’, Review of International Studies 50 (1): 107-126.
• Sorana-Cristina Jude (2023) ‘Returning Home After War: Representations of Romanian Veterans in a Contemporary War Novel (Schije/Shrapnel)’, Journal of War and Culture Studies 16 (2): 207-230.
• Sorana-Cristina Jude (2023) ‘Geopolitical Imaginations of War Preparations: Visual Representations of the Romanian Armed Forces’ Military Exercises’, Critical Military Studies 9 (3): 404-424.

To visit Dr Jude's PURE Research Profile, click here.