Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline

Robert A. Saunders is Professor in History, Politics, and Geography at Farmingdale State College, a campus of the State University of New York (SUNY). His research explores the impact of popular culture and mass media on geopolitics, nationalism, and religious identity. His scholarship has appeared in Progress in Human Geography, Europe-Asia Studies, Slavic Review, Nations and Nationalism, and Geopolitics, among other journals. He is the author of four books, the most recent being Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm (2017). He is also curator of the ‘Popular Culture and IR’ blog at E-International Relations.

Vlad Strukov is Associate Professor in Film and Digital Culture at the University of Leeds, specialising in world cinemas, visual culture, digital media, intermediality, and cultural theory. He explores theories of empire and nationhood, global journalism and grassroots media, and consumption and celebrity by considering the Russian Federation and the Russian-speaking world as his case study. He is the founding and principal editor of the journal Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media (www.digitalicons.org). He is the author of Contemporary Russian Cinema: Symbols of a New Era (2016), and other publications on film.