Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES)

 News

Tina Managhan and Chrissie Steenkamp have taken over the directorship of the Centre from Dan Bulley.  Dan Bulley is staying in the leadership team, with a focus on the seminar series.

About us

An inter-disciplinary research centre with a remit to encourage reflection on social transformations of global scope. The Centre provides a forum for scholars to collaborate and explore such phenomena through theory construction and empirical investigation. 

The Centre’s commitment to inter-disciplinarity offers its members and affiliates excellent opportunities for contacts and networking, as well as a venue for collective reflection. 

We seek to provide a lively intellectual environment for our members and sponsor a varied programme of events including workshops, symposia, conferences and talks from visiting academics.
 

Annual conference

Woman at a street demonstration

Related courses

Research impact

The Centre is committed to the dissemination of high quality research to a wide audience, which includes the academy, policy makers, business and civil society. 

Our research is currently making an impact in UK foreign aid policy, government understanding of Ukrainian politics, public understandings of Vietnamese migration, public policy on family caring practices and reproductive health, and the production of Voting Advice Apps to help inform the public when making election decisions.

More information can be found in the detailed impact of our specific research projects (see below).

Leadership

Dan Bulley

Professor Dan Bulley

Head of School (Interim), Professor of International Relations

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Molly Cochran

Dr Molly Cochran

Reader in International Relations

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Michael Lister

Professor Michael Lister

Professor of Politics

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Tina Managhan

Dr Tina Managhan

Senior Lecturer in International Relations

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Lili Schwoerer

Dr Lili Schwoerer

Teaching Fellow in Sociology

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Chrissie Steenkamp

Dr Chrissie Steenkamp

Reader in Social and Political Change

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Jon Wheatley

Dr Jon Wheatley

Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics

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Projects

Active projects

Project title and description Investigator(s) Funder(s) Dates

What kind of military does Ukraine want and need?

Assessing the importance of strategic and political context for military reforms. Combining the applicants’ language skills and expertise in post-Soviet military transformation and Ukrainian politics, this timely project will assess two important factors that are essential for the successful pursuit of reforms, yet rarely figure in analyses, because they do not fit into dominant analytical frameworks: Ukraine’s geostrategic idiosyncrasies and the significance of the political context, especially regarding civilian control, within which the reforms are carried out.

Dr Sarah Whitmore Leverhulme Trust, BEIS From: October 2019
Until: September 2022

Voting Advice Applications

Jon Wheatley has been designing and deploying Voter Advice Applications (VAAs) during critical elections in over 30 countries at supranational (EU) level, at national level, and at sub-national level since 2010. VAAs are online tools that match their users' policy preferences with those of candidates or parties, providing users with a visual display that indicates the voting options that best correspond with their preferences.

Dr Jon Wheatley From: September 2020
Until: August 2022

Double Trouble: Effect of Violent Conflict on the Abuse and Misuse of Medicine in the MENA Region

Violent conflict has a detrimental effect on public health when civilians are injured, diseases spread and health infrastructures collapse. This project investigates an often-neglected aspect of public health during conflicts: the impact of violent conflict on the abuse and misuse of prescription and non-prescription medicines ('drugs') amongst local populations. It aims to understand the impact of different forms of violent conflict on patterns and levels of drug abuse/misuse in four MENA region countries: Iraq, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen. The study uses a quantitative survey and semi-structured interviews with community pharmacists to gather data about pharmacists' experiences, perceptions and responses to drug abuse/misuse in conflict societies.

Dr Chrissie Steenkamp British Academy From: January 2021
Until: December 2022

Completed projects

Project title and description Investigator(s) Funder(s) Dates

Becoming East and Southeast Asian

Race, Ethnicity and Youth Politics of Belonging in Britain. The aims of this project are to produce new knowledge on the politics of belonging among invisible East Asian youth in Britain.

Dr Tamsin Barber Leverhulme Trust From: May 2019
Until: May 2021

Being a father and a refugee

This study will focus on Syrian refugee fathers and their families ‘integration’ through the men’s accounts of doing fathering and maintaining family life through early transition experiences. The project will compare experiences in the UK and Sweden in order to examine how different country policies and integration processes are experienced.

Professor Tina Miller Leverhulme Trust From: October 2018
Until: April 2020

Shaping debates on UK trade policy and Brexit

Dr Stephen Hurt's research on the European Union's relationship with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states has been the basis for his contribution to debates on UK trade policy since the Brexit referendum result in 2016. This research has, over many years, challenged the claims made about the developmental benefits to African countries of the EU's trade and development policy.

Dr Stephen Hurt From: July 2015
Until: October 2020

Government briefings on Ukrainian domestic politics

Dr Sarah Whitmore is regularly involved in providing consultancy to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (now Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office). She has conducted over 10 expert briefings, including to every HMA-Ambassador Designate Kyiv since 2002, and to the Minister for Europe, Rt.Hon David Liddington, in 2014. Additionally, she produced commissioned reports for the US Department of State (2005), and the Department for International Development (DFID) (2014).

Dr Sarah Whitmore From: January 2014
Until: June 2019

Annual conference

A queue of vehicles with 'Freedom' signs on the front

In the Name of ‘Freedom’: Right-Wing Populism and the End of the Liberal World Order

1:30 pm 24 January 2023 to 6:00 pm 25 January 2023

The event brings together commentators from across the globe and from markedly different disciplines and perspectives to discuss the way right-wing populism is framed within a discourse of freedom.

Annual lecture

Professor Kehinde Andrews

The 2021 GPES Annual Lecture was given by Professor Kehinde Andrews in April 2021 on the topic of his new book: The New Age of Imperialism. This was delivered online due to Covid restrictions.

We were due to welcome Kate Raworth to give the second annual lecture in April 2020 but this had to be cancelled at short notice due to the Covid-19 national lockdown.

GPES was delighted to welcome writer and activist George Monbiot to give the first GPES Annual Lecture in April 2019 on the subject of Environmental Breakdown - and how to stop it.