Dr Marcelle Trote Martins

Lecturer in Critical Global Politics, University of Manchester
MA Politcs Programme Director

I am a Lecturer in Critical Global Politics at the University of Manchester (UoM) and a scholar of visual politics. I hold a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester and master’s and undergraduate degrees in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). My research bridges international conflicts, security studies, and affect theory, with a particular focus on how visual and embodied experiences of war and displacement reconfigure political responses.

Research

My research explores the intersections of visual politics, memory, trauma, and conflict, with a particular focus on how images and embodied experiences of war shape political responses and collective memory. My work brings together International Relations, trauma and memory studies, and visual culture to examine how conflict is represented, remembered, and contested across different contexts, including East Timor, Brazil, and the UK.Research Areas
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Visual Politics of War and Suffering
How images of ‘bodies-in-suffering’ shape international responses to violence and humanitarianism.
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Memory, Trauma, and Post-Conflict Societies
The role of cultural memory and trauma in shaping reconciliation and political identity, with a focus on Timor-Leste.
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Body Politics and Embodied Testimonies
How the body becomes a site of both violence and political resistance.
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Global South Perspectives
Situating research in East Timor and Brazil to expand debates beyond Euro-American perspectives.
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Current Research ProjectFragments of Witnessing: War, Images, and Immigration in the UKFunded by the British International Studies Association (BISA)This project investigates how war-related suffering is seen, felt, and politically understood in the UK by foregrounding the perspectives of refugees and immigrants. At a time when images from conflicts such as Ukraine and Palestine circulate rapidly across news and social media, Fragments of Witnessing asks: how do displaced people in the UK encounter and interpret these representations, and what impact do they have on perceptions of belonging, deservingness, and justice?

Books:

Forthcoming
With Nicholas Gribble. Bodies of War: Rethinking Violent Subjectivities and Societies in and after Conflicts. Edinburgh University Press. Forthcoming.

Affective Imageries: Visual Politics of Wounded Bodies in Timor-Leste, 2024

Affective Imageries: Visual Politics of Wounded Bodies in Timor-Leste analyzes the political mobilization of images of wounded bodies in conflict and post-conflict societies. The book goes beyond traditional analyses of visual politics to offer a new perspective on the construction of affective imageries by considering the importance of poems, photographs and artworks, and calling attention to other ways in which bodies can be affected by conflicts beyond the debate over the physical wounds of war. Connecting debates on visual politics affects and memory studies, and drawing lessons from the East Timorese case, Marcelle Trote Martins reveals how ‘affective imageries’ are created and mobilized, determining the status of the bodies shown in the images, and the kind of (international) attention they merit.

Teaching

Inclusive, image-aware teaching

My teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate levels across international politics, development, security and visual politics, with a strong commitment to inclusive, creative and critically engaged learning. I am particularly interested in bringing visual culture, artistic practices and diverse forms of knowledge into the classroom, encouraging students to question dominant narratives and connect theoretical debates to real-world issues.At the University of Manchester, I am developing "Visual Voices: Conversations Across Political Knowledge", a University-funded teaching innovation project that builds on my Doing Visual Politics Analysis guide. By bringing scholars, photographers, artists and curators into dialogue with students, the project seeks to diversify how political knowledge is produced, taught and understood. My wider teaching practice also includes student mentoring and extracurricular initiatives, including a Politics Study Group and Peer Mentoring Programme at Liverpool John Moores University.Current Teaching · University of Manchester
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Undergraduate Modules
- Questions about International Politics (Level 2) POLI20521
- Politics of (In)security (Level 2) POLI20332
- Gender, War and Militarism (Level 3) POLI30791
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Postgraduate Modules
- European Union Foreign Policy (MA) POLI70851
- Critical Approaches to International Politics (MA) POLI70412
- Security Studies (MA) POLI70462
- Graduate Seminar in International Relations (MA) POLI70401
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Previous Teaching
University of Liverpool
- The International System (MA) POLI131
- Comparative Politics of the Middle East and North Africa POLI215
- Foreign Policy Analysis, 2019–21 POLI210
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Liverpool John Moores University · 2022/23
- The Politics of War and Organised Violence 6108IRP
- Politics and Popular Culture 5109IRP
- International Organisations and Research Methods (MA) 5110IRP
- Convenor, IRP Study Group: Navigating Politics Through Visual Narratives
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University of Manchester · 2019–2022
- Questions about International Politics POLI20521
- Politics of (In)Security POLI20332
- Introduction to International Politics POLI10601
- Politics of Development POLI20722
- Leadership in Action UCIL20031 / 20032
- MSc in Humanitarian Practice (HCRI)

Visual Voices: Conversations Across Political KnowledgeTeaching Innovation · Visual Politics · Curriculum DiversificationHow do we learn about global politics through images? And whose knowledge counts when we seek to understand the political world?Visual Voices: Conversations Across Political Knowledge is a new teaching and learning project at the University of Manchester that brings academic scholarship into conversation with photography, political art and curatorial practice.The project builds on and expands Doing Visual Politics Analysis, a student-friendly guide I developed to introduce students to the critical analysis of political images. The guide encourages students to move beyond describing what they see and instead examine how images construct political meanings through representation, circulation, emotion, power and absence.Visual Voices takes this approach further. Rather than focusing exclusively on how to analyse images, it invites students to engage with the people who produce, interpret and curate them, recognising photographers, artists and curators as political knowledge producers in their own right.From Visual Analysis to Visual ConversationsBuilding on the analytical foundations of Doing Visual Politics Analysis, the project will develop the Visual Voices Digital Learning Hub, bringing together recorded conversations, curated visual materials, academic readings and reflective learning activities.The resource will be embedded within undergraduate and postgraduate Politics teaching at the University of Manchester, particularly Questions About International Politics and Critical Approaches to International Politics.An accompanying Visual Voices Teaching Pack will provide adaptable seminar activities, discussion prompts and guidance for colleagues interested in incorporating visual approaches and practitioner perspectives into their teaching.Diversifying How We Know Politics
At its heart, Visual Voices asks whose perspectives are recognised as political knowledge, whose experiences become visible and how different ways of seeing might challenge established understandings of international politics.By bringing scholars and visual practitioners into dialogue, the project seeks to contribute to more inclusive, creative and critically engaged approaches to teaching Politics and International Relations.The ambition is not simply to teach students how to read images, but to encourage them to question how visual knowledge is produced, whose voices shape it and how seeing itself becomes political.

Media

The elected president of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmão, on the right, receives the country’s symbolic key, presented by Brazilian diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Special Representative in the country. — Antonio Dasiparu, 16 May 2002 / AFP

Interview

I spoke with @mayapaixao_ from Folha de S.Paulo about language policies and generational dynamics in Timor-Leste. In the interview, we explored how decisions around language shape national identity and everyday life in the country, and how different generations experience these policies in distinct ways. You can read the full conversation on Folha’s website.

Interview with Asia Cast: 6 // Marcelle Trote, Sérgio Vieira de Mello e o Timor Leste

I was a guest on the sixth episode of ÁsiaCast, hosted by Thiago Mattos and Daniela Mazur, where I discussed my research on Timor-Leste, a small yet politically significant nation in Southeast Asia. In our conversation, we explored Timor-Leste’s central place in major power struggles over recent decades, as well as a distinctive feature that continues to spark curiosity and connection: it is the only country in the region where Portuguese is an official language.

Photography

Alongside my academic work, I have a deep appreciation for landscape and nature photography, which offers a space for attentiveness, quiet, and reflection; here are some examples of my work, and I hope you enjoy them.Follow me @by.mtrotem