Rate My Professor Kate Utting

Professor Kate Utting, Professor of Defence and Security Education, is Head of the Defence Studies Department in the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, the first woman to hold this position. She has been with the Defence Studies Department since 1997, starting at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, and brings over 30 years of postgraduate teaching experience, including from the London School of Economics Department of International History (1991-1997). Utting has taught a wide range of security professionals from around the world in various teaching formats. Her career includes leadership roles such as Deputy Head of Department (2014-2017), Director of Academic Studies at the Royal College of Defence Studies on secondment (2017-2020), leader of academic implementation for the new Defence Academy contract (2020-2022), Assistant Dean of Academic Studies (2004-2006), and Director of Course Design (2003-2006). She earned her first degree in diplomatic history, MPhil, and PhD in Communications Studies at the University of Leeds.

Kate Utting's academic interests include British propaganda, influence and strategic communications, professional military education, twentieth-century British foreign and imperial history, media-military relations, British counter-insurgency, and international history. She was co-editor of Contemporary British History (1997-2000) and co-convener of the International History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. Key publications feature 'Generation Z and Professional Military Education' (RAND Europe, 2022, with D. Dascalu et al.); 'Strategy, Influence, Strategic Communication and British Military Doctrine' in Propaganda, Power and Persuasion (IB Tauris, 2013); 'Palestine 1945-48: Policy, Propaganda and the Limits of Influence' in British Propaganda and Wars of Empire (Ashgate, 2014); 'British Propaganda and Illegal Immigration into Palestine' in Britain in Global Politics Vol. 2 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); 'Beyond Joint: Professional Military Education for the 21st Century' (Australian Defence Force Journal, 2010); and co-editor of the First Gulf War 25th Anniversary Special Edition of Air Power Review (2016). Utting was principal investigator for the British Academy-funded 'Britain and the 1991 Gulf War: a Witness Seminar' (2011-2012).