Dr Kandida Purnell
Head of Research and Professional Engagement
Associate Professor of International Relations
Richmond, American University London
Dr Kandida Purnell is Head of (Associate Dean) Research and Professional Engagement (RPE) and Associate Professor of International Relations at Richmond, American University London. Kandida is the author of Rethinking the Body in Global Politics (Routledge, 2021) and editor of When This Is Over: Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic (Policy Press, 2023) with Dr Amy Cortvriend (Loughborough University), Professor Lucy Easthope (University of Durham/University of Bath), and Professor Jenny Edkins (University of Manchester). Kandida Purnell is a recipient of the Richmond, American University London Research Development Award Scheme (2025-2026) and is currently working with Dr Lauren Wilcox (University of Cambridge) on the Land and Flesh: Embodying Global Politics and (In)Security research project.
Kandida Purnell · 2021 · Routledge
‘A tour de force of contemporary debates in IR – including on emotion, affect, the body, embodiment, necropolitics, ontological security, & auto-ethnography’ (Professor Sophie Harman)
When This is Over: Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic
Amy Cortvriend, Lucy Easthope, Jenny Edkins & Kandida Purnell · 2023 · Bristol University Press, Policy Press
Research
Dr Kandida Purnell’s research focuses on body politics and the embodiment of (local-)global politics through cases including the Covid-19 pandemic, Global War on Terror (GWoT), War on Ukraine, performances of war, resistance practices, and processes of repatriation and commemoration.
Teaching
Dr Kandida Purnell is an Associate Professor of International Relations (IR) at Richmond, American University London. Kandida has previously worked as a Lecturer in International Relations at City, University of London, and Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations and Teaching Assistant in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Aberdeen.
Dr Kandida Purnell 