The University of Queensland

Dr Andrew Dougall is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital Cultures and Societies at the University of Queensland. He is also member of the School of Political Science and International Studies.

Andrew is an International Relations researcher whose work examines the connection between technologies of communication media and the constitution and contestation of international orders. He is particularly concerned with understanding how shifting media environments affect, and are affected by, the core institutions of global political life.

His forthcoming book, Mediatizing the Nation, Ordering the World (Oxford University Press, in press), explores these issues by examining how digital media have transformed the conditions of success for nationalist challenges to international order. Comparing Trump’s breakthrough in the 21st century United States with a similar – but unsuccessful – movement in 19th century Britain, the book argues that communication media shaped these episodes by differently patterning the constitution and distribution of meaning. Among the book’s key contributions are to explain how media affect vertical challenges to the structure of international orders; to reframe IR’s theoretical engagement with the relationship between media and order; and to situate the internet within a longer history of this relationship, contributing to a more balanced view of its impact.

Andrew's postdoctoral research examines the relationship between digital platforms and order in world politics. Aspects of this work touch on (i) platforms' relationship to the normative architecture of the liberal international information order; (ii) how generative AI reframes debates about the epistemic foundations of global ordering; and (iii) platforms as an institutional form in comparative historical perspective, especially in relation to shifting state authority.

Andrew received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Queensland in 2022. He holds an MA (Hons) in Politics & Economic and Social History from the University of Edinburgh (2009-2013), and an MPhil in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge (2014-15).

In 2020, Andrew received a Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Tutor Award for outstanding teaching.