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About Miranda Melcher

I completed my PhD in Defense Studies at King's College London, where I researched how to negotiate and implement peace treaties. My focus was particularly on the security aspects of peace treaties (military integration, DDR, SSR, etc) and my case studies were Mozambique and Angola.

Miranda Melcher (Ph.D., Defense Studies, Kings College, London) studies post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with deep analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

Miranda's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Miranda:

Higher Education May 30, 2023

Unequal Choices

How Social Class Shapes Where High-Achieving Students Apply to College

Yang Va Lor

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
High-achieving students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to end up at less selective institutions compared to their socioeconomically advantaged peers with similar academic qualifications. A key reason for …
General History May 27, 2023

The West

A New History of an Old Idea

Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney presents a radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives in her …
Women's History May 25, 2023

The Suffragist Peace

How Women's Votes Lead to Fewer Wars

Robert F. Trager and Joslyn N. Barnhart

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In the modern age, some parts of the world are experiencing a long peace. Nuclear weapons, capitalism and the widespread adoption of democratic institutions have been credited with fostering this …
Jewish Studies May 25, 2023

A Brilliant Commodity

Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting

Saskia Coenen Snyder

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the late nineteenth century, tens of thousands of diggers, prospectors, merchants, and dealers extracted and shipped over 50 million carats of diamonds from South Africa to London. The primary …
Medieval History May 23, 2023

Rome and the Invention of the Papacy

The Liber Pontificalis

Rosamond McKitterick

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The remarkable, and permanently influential, papal history known as the Liber pontificalis shaped perceptions and the memory of Rome, the popes, and the many-layered past of both city and papacy …
General History May 23, 2023

Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions

Maurizio Isabella

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna’s attempt to guarantee peace and stability across Europe, a new revolutionary movement emerged in the southern peripheries …
American West May 22, 2023

Arid Empire

The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia

Natalie Koch

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The iconic deserts of the American southwest could not have been colonized and settled without the help of desert experts from the Middle East. For example: In 1856, a caravan …
Politics & Polemics May 17, 2023

Silent Coup

How Corporations Overthrew Democracy

Claire Provost and Matt Kennard

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
As European empires crumbled in the 20th century, the power structures that had dominated the world for centuries were up for renegotiation. Yet instead of a rebirth for democracy, what …
Politics & Polemics May 16, 2023

Naked Feminism

Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty

Victoria Bateman

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Is it right that, despite the promises of feminism, women’s bodies remain at the mercy of state, society and religion? Should a scantily clad woman, or a promiscuous one, be …
Diplomatic History May 15, 2023

Practicing Peace

Conflict Management in Southeast Asia and South America

Aarie Glas

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Southeast Asia and South America are regions made up of largely illiberal states lacking stabilizing great powers or collective identities. But despite persistent territorial disputes, regime instability, and interstate rivalries …
Urban Studies May 14, 2023

Grave

Allison Christine Meier

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Grave (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Allison C. Meier takes a ground-level view of how burial sites have transformed over time and how they continue to change. As a cemetery tour guide …
Film May 12, 2023

The Wrong Kind of Women

Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood

Naomi McDougall Jones

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood (Beacon, 2020) by Naomi McDougall Jones is a brutally honest look at the systemic exclusion of …
Literary Studies May 11, 2023

Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction

Reframing Myths of Adolescent Girlhood

Leah Phillips

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The heroic romance is one of the West's most enduring narratives, found everywhere, from religion and myth to blockbuster films and young adult literature. Within this story, adolescent girls are …
Ancient History May 10, 2023

The Scent of Ancient Magic

Britta K. Ager

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Magic was a fundamental part of the Greco-Roman world. Curses, erotic spells, healing charms, divination, and other supernatural methods of trying to change the universe were everyday methods of coping …
British Studies May 2, 2023

A Mighty Fleet and the King's Power

The Isle of Man, AD 400 To 1265

Tim Clarkson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is like a stepping-stone between the lands that surround it. In medieval times, it played an important role …
Physics and Chemistry May 2, 2023

The Magick of Physics

Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life

Felix Flicker

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
If you were to present the feats of modern science to someone from the past, those feats would surely be considered magic. In The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical …
British Studies April 21, 2023

Empire, Kinship and Violence

Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842

Elizabeth Elbourne

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Empire, Kinship and Violence: Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) by Dr. Elizabeth Elbourne traces the history of three linked imperial …
Food April 19, 2023

Breakfast Cereal

A Global History

Kathryn Cornell Dolan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Breakfast Cereal: A Global History (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Kathryn Dolan presents the long, distinguished and surprising history of breakfast cereal. Simple, healthy and comforting, breakfast cereals are a perennially …
Art April 19, 2023

From Lapland to Sápmi

Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture

Barbara Sjoholm

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Material objects—things made, used, and treasured—tell the story of a people and place. So it is for the Indigenous Sámi living in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, whose story unfolds …
Economic and Business History April 17, 2023

Calming the Storms

The Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises Since 1825

Charles Read

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Calming the Storms: The Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises Since 1825 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) by Dr. Charles Read exposes, for the first time in modern scholarship …
Environmental Studies April 12, 2023

The Heart of the Forest

Why Woods Matter

John Miller

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Heart of the Forest: Why Woods Matter (British Library, 2022) looks at threats to forest life across the globe. Dr. John Miller draws on literature, film and art to …
General History April 12, 2023

Settling for Less

Why States Colonize and Why They Stop

Lachlan McNamee

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Over the past few centuries, vast areas of the world have been violently colonized by settlers. But why did states like Australia and the United States stop settling frontier lands …
Language April 11, 2023

OK

Michelle McSweeney

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
"OK" as a word accepts proposals, describes the world as satisfactory (but not good), provides conversational momentum, or even agrees (or disagrees). OK as an object, however, tells a story …
Women's History April 10, 2023

The Dress Diary

Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe

Kate Strasdin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe (Penguin, 2023) by Dr. Kate Strasdin presents the hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to …