Meera Sabaratnam

I am Associate Professor of International Relations and Tutorial Fellow in Politics at New College. Prior to joining DPIR in 2023, I worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics (LSE), from where I received my MSc and PhD in International Relations. Some time before that, I read PPE at Balliol.

My research explores the colonial and postcolonial dimensions of world politics in their various manifestations. I am interested in the ways in which imperial historical structures, institutions, social relations and forms of knowledge shape the present, as well as the ways in which they are evolving. In my writing, I have explored these questions in relation to international statebuilding, peacebuilding and development assistance, the understanding of war in the international system, International Relations theory and its research methods. I am currently writing a book entitled Complex Indebtedness, which elaborates a postcolonial analysis of the international system with relations of indebtedness - both material and moral - at its centre.

I am Chair (2023-2026) of the Academic Freedom Committee of the International Studies Association (ISA), and have previously served on committees for its Global Development Section, International Political Sociology Section and Theory Section. With Robbie Shilliam and Mustapha Kamal Pasha, I co-founded the Colonial / Postcolonial / Decolonial Working Group of the British International Studies Association, and we co-edit the Postcolonial International Studies book series at Manchester University Press. I serve on the editorial/advisory boards of International Studies Quarterly, Security Dialogue and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and am a former editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. I am an Associate of the Imperial War Museum Institute for the Public Understanding of Conflict. My work has been previously funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Leverhulme Trust.

Teaching

I lecture on the undergraduate papers for International Relations and International Security and Conflict, and teach on the MPhil Core paper and the Research Design and Methods paper.

Supervision

I am interested in supervising projects which explore hierarchy and inequality in the international system, critical approaches to international theory and/or engage historical and interpretive methods.