Dr Matty McKenna PhD

• PhD in Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham, 2025
• MA in Social Research Methods, University of Birmingham, 2020
• MA in Public Policy and Governance, University of Manchester, 2017
• BA in Combined History and Psychology, University of Sunderland, 2016

Matty was brough up in South Tyneside, UK, attending the University of Sunderland. Here he developed a keen interest in the history of political ideas. After completing his MA degree at the University of Birmingham, he completed his ESRC-funded PhD in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Birmingham. His thesis, entitled Policy learning during times of failure and blame: how English local government responds to central government intervention, explored how governance traditions shape practices and beliefs regarding cooperation, conflict, and power within central–local relations. Using a deliberative democratic lens, the thesis offers ways to overcome dysfunctional relational dynamics between conflicting groups.

During his PhD, Matty worked as a Research Associate studying the governance of antimicrobial resistance. First examining this area through the lens of state-citizen interactions, this led Matty into the area of policy-science interactions. After finishing his PhD, Matty secured a postdoctoral position at the University of Kent, working on the governance of agricultural genetic technologies in the UK.

Currently Matty is undertaking an embedded research placement within the UK Government’s Cabinet Office as Centre-UB Postdoctoral Fellow (2026-2027). Here Matty is studying the impact of AI Adoption on civil service practice.

Matty is currently engaged in a range of research activities.:

• Professional behaviours for the digital state: identifying civil service skills for the future
• Policy-Science Interactions: Antimicrobial Resistance, All Party Parliamentary Groups and the UK Parliamentary
• Whose responsibility is it? Socio-political perspectives on Antimicrobial Resistance”