Julia Bethwaite

Julia Bethwaite is Doctoral Researcher in International Relations at Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland. Her research interests consider power and the role of art in international relations and world politics, practices of cultural diplomacy and museum diplomacy, transnational cultural relations, elite networks and interaction of state and non-state actors within the transnational field of art. 

In her doctoral dissertation, she examines forms of power in the transnational field of art by analysing artistic sites, such as the Venice Biennale and fine art museums, and by focusing on 'Russian' actors. Besides her doctoral research, she has worked as Academic Coordinator of the Master’s Degree Programme in Leadership for Change at the Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University (2017–2022).

Doctoral Researcher in International Relations

Secretary of the Finnish Association for Russian and East European Studies (VIETS/FAREES)  

Member of the Board of the Finnish East European and Central Asian Club (FinEECA)

Forms of power, art and the transnational field of art, transnational elite networks, cultural diplomacy, museum diplomacy, international and transnational cultural relations, art in international relations and world politics, art biennials, art museums, international political economy of art, Russia

International relations, international political sociology

2024 Grant researcher, finalising doctoral dissertation (Cultura Foundation)

2023 Grant researcher (1-year personal research grant from Kone Foundation)

‘Cultural Statecraft in International Relations: The Case of Russia’, funded by the Academy of Finland at Tampere University, Finland (2017–2020), Principal Investigator: Tuomas Forsberg. 

‘Making Spaces of Justice Across the East-West Divide’, funded by the Kone Foundation (2016–2018), Principal Investigator: Anni Kangas. Participated as Doctoral Researcher in 2016–2017. 

‘The Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies – Choices of Russia Modernisation’, funded by the Academy of Finland (2012–2017). Participated as Research Assistant (2014–2015) and Doctoral Student (2015–2017) in the clusters ‘Foreign Policy’ and ‘Diversification of Economy’.

Bethwaite, J. (Forthcoming). The Wanderers in Shanghai: Russian fine art and hegemonic meta-capital in world politics. Europe-Asia Studies.

Bethwaite, J. (2022, November 25). Taidemuseot ja ilmastoaktivismi: Huomiopääomasta ympäristöpääomaksi. Politiikasta. https://politiikasta.fi/taidemuseot-ja-ilmastoaktivismi-huomiopaaomasta-ymparistopaaomaksi/ [Blog post]

Bethwaite, J. (2022). Fine arts and International Relations: Russian museum diplomacy. In T. Forsberg & S. Mäkinen (Eds.), Russia's cultural statecraft (pp. 50–74). Routledge. 

Bethwaite, J. (2021, April 27). The Forum of Young Global Leaders and overlapping fields of power. The Global. https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/forum-young-global-leaders-and-overlapping-fields-power [Blog post]

Bethwaite, J. (2018, February 9). The Alchemy of Davos. Vaikuttaja.fi. Retrieved from: https://vaikuttaja.uta.fi/the-alchemy-of-davos/ [Blog post]

Bethwaite, J. (2017, May 19). Exploring the politics of the Venice Biennale. Politiikasta. https://politiikasta.fi/en/exploring-the-politics-of-the-venice-biennale/ [Blog post]

Bethwaite, J. & Kangas, A. (2020). Paradoxes of the Biennale. OnCurating, 46, pp. 494–502. Available at https://www.on-curating.org/issue-46-reader/the-paradoxes-of-the-biennale.html

Bethwaite, J., & Kangas, A. (2019). Parties, pavilions and protests: The heteronomous world politics of the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. New Perspectives, 27(2), pp. 29–61. Available at https://perspectives.iir.cz/download/02-2019-3-julia-bethwaite-anni-kangas-parties-pavilions-and-protests-the-heteronomous-world-politics-of-the-russian-pavilion-at-the-venice-biennale/ 

Bethwaite, J., & Kangas, A. (2018). The scales, politics, and political economies of contemporary art biennials. Arts & International Affairs, 2(3), pp. 73–90. Available at https://theartsjournal.net/2018/02/07/the-scales-politics/  

Kangas, A., & Bethwaite, J. (2019). Venäjän Venetsian-paviljongin paradoksaalinen valta. Idäntutkimus, 1, pp. 23–44. Available at https://journal.fi/idantutkimus/article/view/81964 

Kangas, A., Kujala, J., Heikkinen, A., Lönnqvist, A., Laihonen, H., & Bethwaite, J. (Eds.). (2019). Leading change in a complex world: Transdisciplinary perspectives. Tampere University Press. Available at: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-0845-2