Ffion Rebekha Hildred (UCL) - 2024-25 Students
ffion.hildred.24@ucl.ac.uk

Belonging in the British Army: Investigating identity and the self through corporeality

My project explores how service personnel in the British Army experience belonging and embodiment in military service. It asks how personnel feel and experience belonging through their bodies across four broad thematic categories of analysis, comradeship and socialising, customs and formalities, experiences of inclusion, and changes to the body throughout service. These indicative themes help to focus my analysis of belonging on the bodily experiences of service personnel. The central research question guiding this project asks how the bodies of service personnel are attached to the institution they serve, how their bodies dwell within military spaces, and seeks to understand how service personnel experience embodiment and belonging across their careers. 

Principal Supervisor: Dr Alex Hyde