Researcher biography

Roland is Professor of International Relations, Director of the Rotary Peace Center and Coordinator of the Visual Politics Research Program.

Roland has a passion for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary learning. He has taught over 60 courses at UQ, from introductory classes on Peace Studies to advanced subjects on International Relations Theory and Masters Seminars on Nonviolent Resistance, Visual Politics, Ethics and Human Rights.

Roland's research explores how images and emotions shape political phenomena, including humanitarianism, security, peacebuilding, protest movements and the conflict in Korea. His books include Visual Global Politics (Routledge, 2018); Aesthetics and World Politics (Palgrave, 2009/2012); Divided Korea: Toward a Culture of Reconciliation (University of Minnesota Press, 2005/2008) and Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (CUP, 2000). Complete publications are listed here and can be accessed here. Interviews and other presentations are availalbe here.

Roland's main current research project is an interdisciplinary ARC Linkage collaboration (2022-2026) on The Politics and Ethics of Visualising Humanitarian Crises. The project involves eight researchers and the World Press Photo Foundation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Australian Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Roland grew up in Zürich, Switzerland, where he was educated and worked as a lawyer. He studied international relations in Paris, Seoul, Toronto, Vancouver and Canberra. Roland also worked for two years in a Swiss diplomatic mission in the Korean DMZ and held visiting affiliations at Harvard, Cambridge, Humboldt, Tampere, Yonsei and Pusan National University as well as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

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Selection of Recent Publications

"Visualizing International Relations," Journal of Visual Political Communication, 10,(2023

"Visual Violence," Interview with Brad Evans, Los Angeles Review of Books, 3 Jan 2022.

"Seeing Beyond Disciplines: Aesthetic Creativity in International Theory," Australian Journal of International Affairs, 75, 2021.

Visualising Korea: Critical Moments in History, Society and Politics,(with D. Chapman and D. Shim), Special Issue of Asian Studies Review, 45. 2021.

"Visual Autoethnography and International Security: Insights from the Korean DMZ," European Journal of International Security, 4, 2019.