Profile
Mirko joined Queen Mary University of London in 2023 as Lecturer in Sociology. He previously held teaching positions at both QMUL and King’s College London.
Mirko’s research sits within the fields of Critical War Studies and International Political Sociology. He investigates the sociologies and politics of time and temporality, experiences and narratives of war, theories and practices of military victory, and the embodied politics of military training and deployment.
He holds a BA in International Studies and an MA in International Politics from the University of Milan, an MSc in International Relations Research from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PGCAP and PhD from Queen Mary University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Mirko has also worked as Junior Project Manager and Data Analyst (International Cooperation) at ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco – a University Hospital in Milan affiliated with the University of Milan.
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Teaching
POL285 Introduction to Social Sciences Methodologies
POL256 War and World Politics
Research
Research Interests:
I'm currently working on two main research projects. The first is a monograph titled ‘Military Victory Beyond the Battlefield: Outside Wartime’ that is currently under contract with Oxford University Press. This book project surveys a series of neglected social practices implicated in the construction of military victory – including tattooing, videogaming, history teaching, and the erection of monumental complexes – to argue that victory is made both within and without the battlefield, during both wartime and peacetime. The second project, called Embodied Timekeeping, is a social history of how military establishments regulate the temporal rhythms of soldiering bodies. Attentive to both institutionally enforced practices of temporal regulation and their reception among military personnel, the project seeks to understand how time is made to matter in tactics and strategy, used as means for militarisation, and how it interacts with soldiering bodies and identities.
More broadly, I'm interested in questions related to experiences and narratives of war, sociologies and politics of time and temporality, and martial affects, bodies, and identities.
Examples of research funding:
Examples of recent research funding include a Queen Mary University of London Graduate Teaching Studentship in support of my doctoral studies (fully funded PhD) and an Ermenegildo Zegna Founder’s Scholarship to fund my MSc at the LSE in full (fees and stipend), as well as an HSS Student Bursary (2023/2024).
Publications
Monograph:
Palestrino, M. (in press). Military Victory Beyond the Battlefield: Outside Wartime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Journal Articles:
Palestrino, M. (2025). ‘’Sow the seeds of victory’: wartime gardening and the ontology of military victory’. European Journal of International Relations. OnlineFirst.
Palestrino, M. (2022). ‘Inking Wartime: Military Tattoos and the Temporalities of the War Experience’. International Political Sociology, 16(3): 1-20.
Palestrino, M. (2022). ‘Neglected Times: Laclau, affect, and temporality’. Journal of Political Ideologies, 27(2): 226-245.
Other Publications:
Palestrino, M. (2023). Yellow Ribbons, Stickers, and Poppies. Is It Time To Support the Troops? The Disorder of Things. 25 July 2023.
Palestrino, M. (2023). ‘Timing Populism: Laclau, emotions, and collective identities’. Ideology, Theory, Practice. 13 March 2023.
Cohen, E., Hom, A., Claire Lazar, N., McIntosh, C., Palestrino, M., Solomon, T., hosted by Srinivasan, A. (2022). ‘The Temporal Turn in International Relations’, The Greater European Talks Podcast (Institute for a Greater Europe). Available on Spotify.
Book Reviews:
Palestrino, M. (2024). ‘Book Review of Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp: A Nine-to-Five Emergency’. International Studies Review, 26(4): 1-2.
Supervision
I am currently supervising Brunno Cunha and Kinti/Pablo Orellana Matute.
I welcome PhD proposals in the areas of critical war/military studies; international political sociology; sociologies and politics of time and temporality; narratives, experiences, and bodies of war; everyday practices of security; theories and practices of identity- and memory-making.
