PhD Political Science (Birmingham)

I co-convene the second year course Political Analysis and convene the third year course Power in Britain and the masters course Advanced Political Analysis.

My research focuses on power, political change, and developments within biotechnology. These concerns are linked by a desire to understand, explain and extend political agency in terms of the range of choices, strategies and futures open to individuals and groups within society.

Modules:

• Political Analysis (POLS 201)
• Power in Britain (POLS 306)
• Advanced Political Analysis (G5)

I am also both the Programme Convenor for the MA in Political Science (Research Methods) and the Academic Contact for the POLSIS Undergraduate Lecture Series.

The POLSIS Undergraduate Lectures are organised by students for students. Past speakers have included the Rt Hon. Alistair Darling, Paul Mason (BBC's Newsnight), Prof. Howard Hotson (University of Oxford), and Prof. Emeritus Zygmunt Bauman (University of Leeds). If you would like to know more about this lecture series, or would like to join our organising committee (current POLSIS students only), please do not hesitate to email me.

Current doctoral supervision:

• Martin Monahan (co-supervisor with Dr Peter Kerr) - A Historical Institutionalist Analysis of the Post-Major Conservative Party
• Fran Amery (co-supervisor with Dr Nicola Smith) - Discursive institutionalism and the politics of abortion in  the US and UK
• Liam Stanley (co-supervisor with Dr David Bailey) - The Everyday Politics of the Global Financial Crisis in the  UK

Recently completed PhDs:

• Mark Goodwin (co-supervisor with Dr Peter Kerr) - Education Governance and Policy Failure under New Labour

Research and academic interests

• Power, structure and agency
• Politics of the body
• Political change, representation and accountability

I am a founding member of the International Network on the Status of Women in Political Science.

Journal articles:

• “Questions to the Prime Minister: A Comparative Study of PMQs from Thatcher to Cameron”, (with Peter Kerr, Christopher Byrne and Liam Stanley), Parliamentary Affairs, advance access, (2012), pp.1-28

• “Women in the Profession: The Composition of UK Political Science Departments by Sex”, (with Laura Jenkins and Zoe Pflaeger), Politics, 32/3, (2012), pp.139-152.

• “Struggle (or its absence) during the crisis: what power is left?”, (with David Bailey), Journal of Political Power, 5/2, (2012), pp.195-216.

• “Re-Structuring Power”, Polity, 42/3, (2010), pp.352-376.

• "‘How do we know it’s not been done yet?!’ Trust, trust building and regulation of stem cell research", (with W. Faulkner, S. Parry, S. Cunningham-Burley), Science & Public Policy, 37/9, (2010), pp.703-718

• “Making Time for Change: On Temporal Conceptualisations within Critical Realist Approaches to the Relationship between Structure and Agency” in Volume 4 of Olsen, W. (ed.) (2010) Realist Methodology (London: SAGE/Benchmarks in Social Research Methods)

• “Understanding Change in Political Analysis: On the Need to Bring Space into Theoretical Positions and Empirical Analyses”, (with Nicola Smith), Political Studies Review, 6/2, (2008), pp.191-204.

• "In Defence of Pluralism in the Teaching of Ontology and Epistemology: A Reply to Hay, Marsh and Furlong”, (with Laura Jenkins), Politics, 27/3, (2007), pp.208-211.

• “Teaching and Learning Ontology and Epistemology in Political Science”, (with Laura Jenkins), Politics, 27/1, (2007), pp.55-63.

• “Making Time for Change: On Temporal Conceptualisations within Critical Realist Approaches to the Relationship between Structure and Agency”, Sociology, 40/1, (2006), pp.143-161.

Other:

• “The Social Dynamics of Public Engagement in Stem Cell Research”, (with Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Wendy Faulkner and Sarah Parry), ESRC Genomics Network Policy Brief, (2007).

• “Reflections on the Perils of Public Engagement”, (with Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Wendy Faulkner and Sarah Parry), ESRC Genomics Network Newsletter, (2007).

• "The Social Dynamics of Public Engagement in Stem Cell Research", (with Sarah Cunningham-Burley), The Genomics Policy & Research Forum for Members of the Scottish Parliament, (14th March 2007)