Conferences and Talks

Publications

International Studies Association, Chicago. 2025 (Upcoming) - "Improvisation and Play within Intelligence Practice"

Society for Intelligence History, Washington DC. 2025 (Upcoming)- "Adapting Espionage: how intelligence history is constructed for stage and screen"

(Inter)Disciplinary Bodies, Uxbridge. 2024 - "Post-Death Performance and the case of Operation Mincemeat"

International Studies Association, San Francisco. 2024- "Constructing a Character: Entertainment, Social Media and the Public Performances of Intelligence Agencies"

King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence, London. 2023- Invited to speak on John le Carre, performance, and espionage at a special event, A delicate truth: John le Carré, spy fiction & intelligence

North American Society for Intelligence History, Online. 2023 - Invited Brown Bag entitled "Theatre, Performance, and SOE: Setting the Stage"

International Studies Association, Montreal. 2023- Member of the panel New Directions in the Study of Intelligence

International Studies Association, Montreal. 2023- "Undercover Performances: Audience Participation in Intelligence's ‘Theatre of the Real'"

International Studies Association, Online. 2022- "Performance as tradecraft: the inclusion of the arts and theatrical practice in approaches to Intelligence Studies" on a panel for Diversity, Inclusion and Western Intelligence Services.

International Studies Association, Online. 2022- "‘I only act like I know everything': the representation, performance and performativity of female spies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe" presented on the Angels, Agents, Romeos and Vicious Vixens: Pop Culture and the Public Perception of Intelligence panel.

TAPRA Postgraduate Conference, Online. 2021- "The dramaturgy of deception: staging spies in the ‘Theatre of the Real'"

Postgraduate Conference, RCSSD. 2019- Presenting research project entitled "'Full of sound and fury signifying nothing': how does an audience experience space and performative text when their only stage is audiospace?"

Sobel, A.W. (2022) ‘The theatre of the real: the actor/spy relationship in le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Little Drummer Girl',Intelligence and National Security, pp. 1–13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2022.2151757.

Sobel, A.W. (2022) ‘All the world's a stage: covert action as theatrical performance', Intelligence and National Security, 37(4), pp. 569–580. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2022.2065607.