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Departmental Seminar Series

The Department of Politics and International Relations' Seminar Series provides a forum for the presentation of original political research and/or the analysis of significant current affairs. It has three principal aims: (i) to promote and develop research within the department; (ii) to increase awareness amongst staff and students of developments in all fields of political science, including international relations and political theory; and (iii) to extend and strengthen links with scholars from other Royal Holloway departments and other institutions. Speakers include staff and PhD students from within our own department and a range of early-career and established researchers from outside.

Seminars are usually held every week during term time (now Tuesdays at 5.15pm) either in FW101 or the Main Lecture Theatre in Founder's Building, and they are open to all academic staff and postgraduate and undergraduate students in the College. We particularly encourage our own students in the department to attend.

2011-12 Spring term programme

Tuesday 10 January

Peter John (University College London)

‘Why do policy issues go in and out of fashion? The case of British politics’

Tuesday 17 January

Andrew Bowie (Royal Holloway)

‘Adorno on freedom’

Tuesday 24 January

Alan Renwick (University of Reading)

‘Are electoral systems becoming more personalized?’

Tuesday 31 January

Michael Bacon (Royal Holloway)

‘Pragmatism and deliberative democracy’

Tuesday 7 February

Michel Seymour (University of Montréal)

‘Secession and the self-determination of peoples’

Tuesday 21 February

Rasmus Kleis Nielson (Roskilde University)

‘Personalized political communication in American campaigns’

Tuesday 28 February

Chris Rumford (Royal Holloway)

‘Monumentalizing Europe’s borders: making cultural encounters visible’

Tuesday 6 March

Naoko Shimazu (Birkbeck, University of London)

‘Performativity in diplomacy: the Bandung Conference of 1955’

Tuesday 13 March

Alasdair Pinkerton (Royal Holloway)

‘“Pressing” Canada’s Arctic claims: space, security and satire’

Tuesday 20 March

Ashley Jackson (King’s College London)

‘Military migrants in the Second World War: the British imperial experience in the Indian Ocean region’

2011-12 Autumn term programme

Tuesday 27 September

Giacomo Benedetto (Royal Holloway)

‘The politics of the Eurozone crisis’

Tuesday 4 October

Sandra Halperin (Royal Holloway)

‘The Arab Spring: reflections on political resistance and the roots of power’

Tuesday 11 October

Chris Brown (LSE)

‘After Caroline: NSS 2002, practical judgement and the politics and ethics of pre-emption’

Tuesday 18 October

Colin Davis (Royal Holloway)

‘Social influence in televised election debates: a potential distortion of democracy’

Tuesday 25 October

Anja Neundorf (Nuffield College, Oxford)

‘The post-socialist citizen: adjusting to a new political system’

Tuesday 8 November

Frank Grundig (University of Kent) POSTPONED

‘Structural group leadership and environmental regime effectiveness’

Tuesday November

Nathan Widder (Royal Holloway)

‘A semblance of identity: Nietzsche on the agency of the drives and their relation to consciousness’

Tuesday 22 November

Elizabeth Evans (University of Kingston)

‘Sluts, sexism and sisterhood: exploring the political narratives of third-wave feminism’

Tuesday 29 November

Oliver Heath (Royal Holloway)

‘Political competition, communal tension and security fears in North India’

Tuesday 6 December

Sir Ivor Crewe (University College, Oxford)

‘Why are we so badly governed? Domestic policy blunders in the UK 1980-2010’

2010-11 Spring term programme

Wednesday 12 January

Air Commodore William H. Boothby (RAF)

‘Weapons law - taking stock and charting the future’

Wednesday 26 January

Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt (LSE)

‘Why the Germans trust the French but not the Poles: a geographical approach to the contact hypothesis’

Wednesday 2 February

John Abraham (Royal Holloway)

‘Towards a political economy of Hindu nationalism in India: 1998-2004’

Wednesday 9 February

Jamie Bartlett (Demos)

‘The radicalising multiplier: the role of conspiracy theories in terrorist groups’

Wednesday 9 March

Aeron Davis (Goldsmiths)

‘The cultural and communicative disembedding of UK political elites’

Wednesday 16 March

Andrew Chadwick (Royal Holloway)

‘The political information cycle in a hybrid news system: the British prime minister and the “Bullygate” affair’

Wednesday 23 March

Julia Gallagher (Royal Holloway)

‘Britain, Africa and the pursuit of the good state’

2010-2011 Autumn term programme

Wednesday 6 October

Charlotte Epstein (University of Sydney)

‘When the Pre-modern is Post-Modern. Hobbes, Lacan and the Making of the International System’

Wednesday 20 October

Shyamal Kataria (Royal Holloway)

‘Refugee “collective memories” as a source of ethno-national conflict: The case of Khalistan’ (lunchtime session)

Diana Coole (Birkbeck, University of London)

‘Return of the Population Question?’ (evening session)

Wednesday 27 October

Laura J. Spence (Royal Holloway)

‘Governmentality in Supply Chains’

Wednesday 10 November

Anthony King (University of Essex)

‘Contradictions of American democracy’

Wednesday 17 November

Dan Hough (University of Sussex)

‘Norms, values and “doing the right thing”: the reform of parliamentary expenses in the UK’

Wednesday 24 November

John Mattausch (Royal Holloway)

‘Will The Cap Fit? The coalition and migration’

Wednesday 1 December

Niklas Rolf (Royal Holloway)

‘Order and Justice on a Global Scale? The Domestic Analogy in International Relations Theory’

Thursday 2 December

Antara Datta (Royal Holloway)

‘Assam and the Refugee Crisis of 1971: From “Refugee” to “Infiltrator”‘

2009-10 Spring term programme

Wednesday 13 January

Daniel Hough (University of Sussex)

‘The Impact of the 2009 German Elections’

Wednesday 27 January

John Sloboda and Michael Spagat (Royal Holloway)

‘Lifting the lid on conflict mortality data: beyond the politics of numbers’

Wednesday 3 February

Stuart Allan (University of Bournemouth)

‘Digital War Reporting’

Thursday 4 February

Sven Biscop (Royal Institute for International Relations, EGMONT)

‘The value of power – the power of values: a call for an EU grand strategy’

Wednesday 10 February

Didem Gulmez (Royal Holloway)

‘Cyprus Conflict: a World Society Perspective’

Wednesday 3 March

Albena Kuyumdzhieva-Venkova (Royal Holloway)

‘Why should we fix something if it is not broken? - A case study of the lobbying regulations in the European Institutions’

Wednesday 10 March

Sandra Halperin (Royal Holloway)

‘Global Development: the Role of trans-local Elites’

Wednesday 17 March

Christina Slade (City University)

‘Media and Citizenship: Transnational Television Cultures: Reshaping Political Identities in the European Union’

Wednesday 24 March

BarisGulmez(Royal Holloway)

‘Party-based Euroscepticism in Turkey: Introducing a Third Dimension to the Euroscepticism Literature’

2009-10 Autumn term schedule

Wednesdays 17:00 - 18:30 (Note New Time). All welcome. Room FW101 unless otherwise specified.

7 October: Oliver Heath, 'The Politicisation of Social Diversity in India' (Note: earlier 16:00 start)

14 October: Pepijn van Houwelingen, 'Realism and the EU'

28 October: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, until recently HM Ambassador to Afghanistan and currently the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (Britain’s opposite number to Richard Holbrook).

11 November: Isabelle Hertner, 'Pan-European Campaigning for the European Elections? The case of the Party of European Socialists in 2009'

18 November: Nick Allen, 'Wielding the axe: British prime ministers and the power to dismiss'

25 November: Albena Kuyumdzhieva-Venkova, 'Why should we fix something if it is not broken? - A case study of the lobbying regulations in the European Institutions'

2 December: Sandra Halperin, 'Global Development: the Role of trans-local Elites'

2008-9 Summer term programme

Wednesdays 13:15 - 14:30. All welcome. Room FW101 unless otherwise specified.

29 April: Nathan Coombs, 'Eventual Hermeneutics: The Void of Revolutionary Praxis'

6 May: Tom Smith, 'The Global Jihad'

27 May: Yasmin Khan, 'Gandhi's Assassination and Indian Sovereignty'

3 June, Gracia Abad, 'The North Korean Nuclear Programme and the Six Party Talks'

2008-9 Spring term programme

Wednesdays 13:15 - 14:30. All welcome. Room FW101 unless otherwise specified.

Venue: Windsor 0-05:

14 January: Umar Khan, FATA of Pakistan (Windsor 0-05)

21 January: Colin Fleming, Testing the new war thesis: Armies, Militias, or Mobs? Force structures in the Balkan Wars (Windsor 0-05)

4 February: Gulay Icoz, Turkey's Unsettled Relationship with the European Union since the 1980s (Chair: Yajai Bunnag)

11 February: Mina Al-Lami, Radicalisation and the Media

4 March: Ruth Yeoman, Justice in Work - Towards Institutional Guarantees for Meaningful Work

18 March: James Sloam, Civic education in the UK, Germany and the US (Chair: Mhairi Wilson)

25 March: Mhairi Wilson, British Military Intervention under the Blair Government

2008-9 Autumn term programme

Wednesdays 13:15 – 14:30. All welcome.

Wed 1 Oct Giacomo Benedetto Consensus and Legislative Politics in the European Parliament: Do the Enlargement of 2004 and the advent of “united” government make a difference? Chair: Ben O’Loughlin

Wed 8 Oct Jonathan Seglow Immigration and Open Borders Chair - Michelle Springfield

Wed 15 Oct Chris Boerl A House Divided: How the Internet is Fragmenting America's Christian Right Chair: Christopher Perkins

Wed 22 Oct Mike Jensen The Internet and the US election Chair: Ben O’Loughlin

Wed 29 Oct MªLuisa Azpíroz Diplomacy in the ‘war on terror’ and its impact on Europe Chair: Ben O’Loughlin

Wed 12 Nov Oliver Heath Title TBC Chair: Isabelle Hertner

Wed 19 Nov Michael Williams Foundations of Failure: Understanding NATO's Predicament in Afghanistan Chair: Monika Barthwal

Wed 26 Nov Ashwani Sharma Contesting Global Economic Governance: synergies created by the alliance of the Third World Coalition with Global Social Movements Chair: Ben O’Loughlin

2007-8 Summer term programme

13:15 – 14:30 in ABS021. All welcome.

28 May Gavin Drewry - The Political Science of Capital Punishment

4 June Gracia Abad - The Beijing Consensus and China's Foreign Policy

2007-8 Spring term programme

All on Wednesdays, 13:15-14:30 in room MB003 (Management Building).

9 January Chris Rumford - 'Europe’s shifting borders'

16 January Nick Anstead and Andrew Chadwick - 'Parties, Election Campaigning and the Internet: Toward A Comparative Institutional Approach'

30 January Michelle Springfield - 'The politics of hunger, old theories and new solutions'

20 February John Edwards - 'Hatton v. UK'

27 February Gavin Drewry - 'The Political Science of Capital Punishment'

12 March Hasan Turunc - 'EU Reforms and the legacy of Turkish Military'

2007-8 Autumn term programme

All on Wednesdays, 13:15-14:30 in room Bourne 6-02.

10 October Noman Hanif - 'From Power to Paradise, Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the shadow Caliphate'

24 October Nick Anstead - 'British and American campaign finance in comparative perspective: old institutions and new technologies'

31 October Joanna Kamiska - 'The role of new member countries in the development of Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU: The role of Poland and the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy'

14 November Luis Simon - 'France, Britain, Germany and the emerging EU-NATO relationship in the field of external crisis management'

21 November Monika Barthwal - 'Understanding Security in South Asia: Is the Securitisation Framework Enough?'

28 November Michael Bacon - 'Pragmatism, Deliberation, and Democracy'

2006-7 Summer term programme

Wednesday 2nd May 12:30 (Room WIN004) - Alister Miskimmon: ‘Germany and the European Union’s emerging role in crisis management’

Wednesday 9th May at 12.30 (Room WIN004) - Noman Hanif: ‘From power to paradise: Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Liberation Party) and the shadow caliphate’

Wednesday 16th May at 12.30 (Room WIN004) - Steven Haines: ‘The laws of war at sea: The Great Powers and economic warfare in the 21st Century’ CANCELLED.

Wednesday 23rd May at 12.30 (Room WIN004) - Akil Awan: ‘Radical Islamism and nationalism’

2006-7 Spring term programme

Wednesday 24th January at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - John Edwards: ‘Duties, trust and rights’

Wednesday 7th February at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - Ruth Chenoweth: ‘Human worth and work: the structure of meaningful work'

Wednesday 14th February at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - John Mattausch: ‘Departmental ditties: What is the proper name for minority ethnic communities?’

Wednesday 28th February at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - Nathan Widder: ‘The time-politics assemblage’

Wednesday 14th March at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - Mary Francoli: ‘Political representatives, blogs and networked democracy’

Wednesday 21st March at 13.15 (Room WIN004) - Akil Awan: ‘Radical Islamism and nationalism’

2006-7 Autumn term programme

Wednesday 11th October at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Sandra Halperin: “Trans-local/regional connections in global development: a ‘horizontal’ perspective”

Wednesday 18th October at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Ben O’Loughlin: “Democratic engagement and re-presentation in Britain after the 2003 Iraq War”

Wednesday 25th October at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Giacomo Benedetto: “The rejected, the ejected, and the dejected: explaining government rebels in the British House of Commons”

Wednesday 15th November at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Nick Anstead: “British and American parties: how structures have influenced the development of online electoral campaigning”

Wednesday 22nd November at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Stephanie Carvin: “Just cause and just means? America and the linking of the purpose and tactics of war after 9/11”

Wednesday 29th November at 13.15 (Windsor 05) - Yenn Lee: “The Internet and civic engagement: the Korean presidential election of 2002”

2005-6 Summer term programme

24th May at 13.15 in Room AS21: Jonathan Seglow: 'Who is my stranger? Moral distance and global justice'

7th June at 13.15 in Room AS21: Monika Barthwal: 'Regional security dynamics in South Asia - a framework for analysis

2005-6 Spring term programme

25th January at 13.15 in Room AS21: Peter Davis: 'Can the international corporate sector play a positive role in the re-construction of post-conflict states?'

8th February at 13.15 in Room AS21: Adrian Baboi-Stroe: 'Anti-corruption policies in post-communist transition: between domestic drive and external pressure'

22nd March at 13.15 in Room AS21: Colin Fleming: 'Re-evaluating the New War Thesis; a Balkan case study'