Politics and International Relations

Summary

The Research Centre for the Study of Politics, International Relations and Environment is an excellent base for pursuing doctoral research, with a long record of successful PhD students who have gone on to careers in research in academia and in other fields. We welcome postgraduate research students from around the world as well as the UK and provide supervision, support and facilities to enable them to achieve their full potential in a stimulating and lively environment.

Student testimonials

Research interests

Academic staff in RC4SPIRE have research expertise in a large range of areas of politics, policy, and international relations, and provide supervision to PhD students working on various topics within these areas. Our PhD students work with a principal supervisor who is a specialist in their research area. Principal supervisors provide guidance and advice to help students develop their ideas and focus their research questions, to execute high quality research and to structure and write up their thesis. Students and principal supervisors meet regularly to discuss and review progress. As well as having a principal supervisor, each student has a secondary supervisor who is available to offer further support. In addition to meeting regularly with their supervisors, students are required to pass formal progressions stages after 10 months and after 30 months of full time study.

The following staff are currently available to supervise research degrees:

Name	Areas of expertise
Linda Åhäll	Feminist International Relations; Critical security studies; Poststructuralism; The politics of emotion; Popular culture and world politics.
Christopher Bailey	US politics, especially environmental politics and policy and foreign policy.
Marit Böker	Political theory, especially democratic theory, environmental theory, and critical theory; Issues around democracy, sustainability, and environmental governance.
Elisabeth Carter	Comparative European politics, especially political parties and party systems, elections, electoral institutions and electoral behaviour; Right-wing extremism.
Philip Catney	British politics; Public policy theory; Public management; Environmental policy; Urban regeneration; Local government; Political economy.
Brian Doherty	Social and political movements, especially environmental ones; Direct action; Radical protest.
Kyril Drezov	Communism and Post-Communism; Contemporary politics of Eastern, Central and South Eastern Europe; Balkan politics and international relations; Bulgarian and Macedonian politics.
Bülent Gökay	Contemporary Turkish political history; Decline and disintegration of the state socialist systems of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union; Oil politics and energy security in Eurasia; Global political economy - decline of the West, 'World Systems' perspective
Jon Herbert	US politics, especially the presidency, public policy, and foreign policy.
Robert Ladrech	European politics; European integration; Political parties; Social democratic ideology and practice; French politics; The politics of climate change.
Kurt Richard Luther	Comparative politics, especially political parties and party systems; Right-wing radical parties; Politics of deeply divided societies; Federalism; Politics of the German-speaking states and of Europe more generally.
Moran Mandelbaum	International Relations theory; Gender; Critical security studies; Nationalism; Emotions and affect; Israel/Palestine.
Monica Mookherjee	Contemporary political philosophy, particularly feminism, multiculturalism, toleration, the politics of recognition, democratic theory, global justice, human rights and responsibilities, reconciliation and restorative justice; Liberal nationalism; Value pluralism.
Jonathan Parker	US politics, especially federalism and public policy (in particular, education policy).
Helen Parr	Twentieth century British political history; International history; Cold War; Britain and European integration; War, society and culture in Britain.
Rebecca Richards	Development and Security, especially the state and political development; Statebuilding; Hybrid governance; Unrecognised states; African politics, especially Somalia, Somaliland, and the Horn of Africa.
Barry Ryan	Maritime Security; Critical Geopolitics/Spatial security; Theories of police power and global security; Military civilian assemblages; Security-development nexus; Police reform.
David Scrivener	International Relations of the environment; Arms control and proliferation; the Arctic and Antarctica; Soviet politics including Soviet foreign and defence policy.
Naveed Sheikh	Islamic politics; Middle East Politics and international relations; Terrorism/radicalism as it pertains to the Muslim world; Security in South Asia.
John Vogler	Global commons; International environmental cooperation, especially climate change and EU external policy and actorness.
Matthew Wyman	Soviet and post-Soviet politics, especially Russian politics; Political attitudes and behaviour; Politics teaching, political education, and citizenship education.