Professor Dmitry Chernobrov
BA (MGIMO); MPhil (Cambridge); PhD (MGIMO); PhD (St Andrews); SFHEA
School of Journalism, Media and Communication
Professor of Communication and International Relations
School Director of Research and Innovation
+44 114 222 2542
Full contact details
School of Journalism, Media and Communication
C643
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
ºù«Ӱҵ
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Dmitry is Professor of Communication and International Relations and the School Director of Research and Innovation. His research focuses on three principal strands, united by the central theme of foreign policy narration, contestation, and perception: 1) conflict narratives and ontological security, 2) diasporas, participatory war, and social media activism, and 3) humour in international relations and political communication. Dmitry is the author of an award-winning book (2019 for an ‘exceptional contribution to the study of international security’), and is currently writing a monograph on the digital battlefields of the 2020 Karabakh war. He has secured research funding from the British Academy, Scottish Funding Council, Fulbright, and USC.
Dmitry joined the University of ºù«Ӱҵ in 2015. In 2022-2024, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, conducting a project on in public diplomacy and its . Dmitry also served as Co-Director of the Digital Society Network (2021-2022) and member of its steering committee (2019-2024). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.
Dmitry discusses what he loves about teaching, why he joined the University of ºù«Ӱҵ, his new book, his next research projects, and how history can help us understand political communication.
- Research interests
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My research focuses on how international conflicts and foreign policy issues are narrated, contested, and perceived by political actors and publics.
In an on public perception of international crises, I explore how societies relate to distant conflicts through the prism of local memories, identity narratives, anxieties, and hopes. The book analyses how the British and Russian public made sense of the Arab Spring as the uprisings unraveled. I demonstrate how in times of crisis and uncertainty, societies idealize themselves through imagining distant others and prioritize self-affirming narratives over factual accuracy.
I further explore the theme of narratives and conflict in my ongoing research on Diasporas at #War, which questions how diasporas produce, disseminate and contest online narratives during armed conflict in their homeland. Drawing on extensive interviews with Armenian and Azerbaijani diasporas about the 2020 Karabakh war, I examine how modern wars exceed physical battlefields and extend into online spaces of activism, contestation, digital storytelling, and participatory propaganda.
In the third key strand of my research, I develop the concept of in public diplomacy. I am particularly interested in the persuasive applications of humour to affirm or dispute the reality of complex international events. I investigate how states and non-state actors strategically use humour to narrate controversial events to publics, contest narratives of others, and legitimate policy, and the reception and (re)production of this humour by audiences.
As part of my work, I have advised and held knowledge exchange activities with a range of diaspora communities and organisations, conflict resolution NGOs, policymakers, diplomats, and humanitarian agencies.
- Publications
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Books
- Public Perception of International Crises: Identity, Ontological Security and Self-Affirmation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Journal articles
- . Global Studies Quarterly, 4(1).
- Strategic humor and post-truth public diplomacy. CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, 3(Paper 3), 1-48.
- . International Affairs, 98(2), 631-651.
- . The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 24(2), 277-296.
- . Politics, 42(3), 393-409.
- . Nationalities Papers, 48(5), 915-930.
- . Ethnicities, 20(3), 520-543.
- . Politics, 39(3), 347-362.
- . SAGE Research Methods Cases Part 2.
- . Digital Journalism, 6(7), 928-944.
- . Political Psychology.
- . Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 19(1), 72-88.
- The Other in modern conflict: A constructivist lens. Journal of MGIMO University, 1, 58-67.
- . Vestnik MGIMO, 30(3), 86-91.
- . Vestnik MGIMO, 27(6), 47-53.
- . Vestnik MGIMO, 20(5), 21-26.
Website content
- No laughing matter? How states use humour in public diplomacy. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/07/09/no-laughing-matter-how-states-use-humour-in-public-diplomacy/.
- Why language matters in the ‘Disinformation’ Age.
- Digital humanitarians: a new source for crisis reporting? https://blogs.city.ac.uk/humnews/2018/06/19/digital-humanitarians-a-new-source-for-crisis-reporting/.
- Traitors List: ‘traitors’ in political and media rhetoric today. http://politicsblog.ac.uk/2018/06/21/traitors-list-traitors-political-media-rhetoric-today/.
- How states use humor in public diplomacy.
- Diasporas as Cyber-Warriors and Cyber-Diplomats.
- The clash of images: humorous vs. serious politics in public diplomacy reception.
- Strategic humor and post-truth public diplomacy.
- Public Perception of International Crises.
- Public Perception of International Crises.
- Aid organisations and media: a new look at the problem of ‘branding’. Retrieved from
- Public Perception of International Crises: Identity, Ontological Security and Self-Affirmation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Teaching activities
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Dmitry’s teaching situates media representations into the wider political and societal contexts. He encourages students to be critical and reflexive about perception and representation of global issues and teaches using interactive formats such as debates, crisis modelling, film discussions, and student-led research projects.
Dmitry is the module leader for:
- JNL6041 Media, Society and International Crises (core on MA IPPC)
- JNL6027 Journalism, Globalisation and Development (core on MA Global Journalism)
He also supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and contributes to a range of other modules.
- PhD supervision
Dmitry is interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas:
- Media representations, identity, and public opinion
- Humour, public diplomacy, and foreign policy
- Emotion and collective memory
- Diasporas and conflict
- Participatory warfare and conflict infopolitics
- Humanitarian crisis communication
- Critical conceptions of security/insecurity in media and politics
Current PhD students
- Zhong Zhang: The Civil Power of Nonprofit Journalism in China