My research interests lie in the area of European Union politics - especially political parties, elections and the European Parliament. I have published in journals such as 'Representation', 'The Political Quarterly', and the 'Australian Journal of Political Science', as well as single authored monographs for Routledge and Manchester University Press. My recent focus has been on the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party and their 'Euro-realist' politics.
I am the Academic Co-ordinator of 'Jean Monnet at Lancaster' (www.lancaster.ac.uk/eustudies), a European Commission funded project (€44,335.50) designed to promote and explain the work of the European Union through coordinating research seminars, lectures and policy workshops.
Related to this, I am the founding convener of the European Parliament Academic Research Network involving members of UACES. A special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies has been published in 2025 looking at the ninth session of the European Parliament, which I edited, along with an accompanying Routledge book.
I am also an associated researcher at the Institute for European Studies, Universite libre de Bruxelles (ULB): Institute for European Studies, ULB. I recently finished working on an international research project examining the role of social, moral and religious issues in the activities of Members of the European Parliament, MEPs (with Professor François Foret, ULB Bruxelles) the findings of which were published in a special issue of Religion, State and Society and a Routledge edited volume.
I am currently co-authoring a paper with Emanuele Massetti (University of Trento) examining the European Conservatives and Reformists under the leadership of Brothers of Italy (FdI).
European Union politics; Political parties and elections; European Parliament
PPR.286 European Union Politics
PPR.331 The European Union and the World
PPR.417 The European Union
I studied Politics and International Relations at Glasgow University (graduating with first class honours). Prior to being appointed at Lancaster, I worked for an Edinburgh / London based electoral research NGO. During my postdoctoral studies, I spent a period at McGill University in Canada as a visiting scholar. In 2008, I won the Political Studies Association prize for the best article published in the journal, Politics.
Discipline Lead for Politics, School of Global Affairs
