Personal Statement
Dr Amal Abu-Bakare is a lecturer in the politics of race and decolonial studies at the University of Liverpool. She received her PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University in November 2020. As a Saudi-born Nigerian dual citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom, Abu-Bakare is interested in all things international, particularly food and politics. Her current academic profile remains centred on using anti-colonial IR theory to explore how North American and European political/security institutions continue to empower racially configured exclusions and terror. She leads the Anticolonial Education Working Group, a network of Liverpool academics and community partners who are dedicated to a collective interest in research on anti-colonial pedagogy in higher education.

Research Overview
Anti-colonial International Relations
Postcolonial Studies
Abolitionist Thought
Racialisation and Systemic racism in International Politics
Intersectional and Islamic feminist projects
Counterterrorism and CVE
Migration Security
Critical Security Studies
Art as a political medium

Personal Statement
I joined the University of Liverpool in September 2023, as Head of the Department of Politics. Before this I was head of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, where I also taught politics and sociology. While at Birkbeck I contributed to the London Consortium PhD Programme and taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. I am a member of the editorial board of the journal Economy and Society and reviews editor for the journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

My work is at the intersection of law, politics, and social theory. Across the last decade I have focused on two themes: guilt, violence, legitimacy, and problems of political obligation; and law, reproductive technologies, and the governance of families. I have recently published several articles on the Harvard political theorist Judith Shklar, and am currently working on the legal and political implications of the development of an international market in surrogacy services, tracing the significance of surrogacy for our understandings of filiation.

I would welcome enquiries from postgraduate students interested in topics related to my research specialisms.

Research Overview
My current work focuses on how developments in reproductive medicine and the growth of markets in associated services are changing the face of kinship. Pre-existing forms of legal recognition of filiation are increasingly contradicted by new family forms and the multiplication of those involved in the production of children. I am investigating how kinship is being transformed and attempting to elucidate the resulting legal, cultural, and political pressure points produced. Surrogacy is a focal point for this analysis as it occupies a specific and particularly fraught place in contemporary transformations of kinship. Surrogacy breaks the assumed continuum of genetics, gestation and care wrapped up in parenthood, and contradicts the common legal principle and cultural presumption that a woman who gives birth to a child is its mother. Surrogacy and its commodification are therefore in tension with established legal and cultural assumptions, and while it is growing as a practice there is little agreement about its implications for the future of filiation.

From 2014 until 2023, I was a member of the interdisciplinary Guilt Working Group that met at Birkbeck College, University of London. Across this decade, I also worked extensively with Andreas Hess (University College Dublin) on manuscripts in the Harvard Archives, bringing to light the lectures on political obligation produced by the Harvard political theorist Judith Shklar. This work was published with Yale University Press in 2019.

Ph.D. supervision

I currently co-supervise 2 postgraduate research students jointly with colleagues at Birkbeck College, Univeristy of London:

Joy Brooks-Gilzeane, ‘A historical analysis of the mobilisation and resistance of black women against racial, gender, and class-based oppression in the UK and France’, commenced October 2022 (ESRC studentship)

Daniel Gibbons, 'Prosthetic or Supervisor?: AI and the Remaking of the British State’, commenced October 2023 (ESRC studentship)

Previous Ph.D. students include:

James Driver, ‘Wittgenstein and Habermas on the philosophy of language’, awarded 2005.
Peter Harvie, ‘Multi-Agency Working in Domestic Violence’, awarded 2008.
Dave Broomhall, ‘Foucault’s ethics’, awarded 2010.
Jessica Daggers, ‘Solving’ Social Problems with Markets and Measurement: a Critical Study of Social Impact Investing’, awarded March 2019.
Sreenanti Banerjee, ‘The Governmentality of Population Debates in Postcolonial India’, begun October 2015, awarded July 2020.
Kanika Gauba, ‘Partition’s Constitution: law, violence, nation’, awarded 2026.

Personal Statement
Wendy is an interdisciplinary researcher who works in a challenge-led and collaborative way to deliver high-impact and diverse outputs. Areas of specialism span politics, history, cultural studies and law to explore: ethics of co-productive research for social justice; creative methods that centre meaningful community-engagement and; preventative approaches to global social challenges that recognise root causes.

Wendy joined the Politics department in 2021 and has led impact-focussed and policy-oriented elements of innovative research grants. She is a Co-convenor with the Centre for People's Justice (2025-2030). Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Centre pursues change-making research that responds to the public’s need and desire for fairer, safer and more inclusive societies. Wendy is also Co-lead of the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (MSPEC) (2024-2027) a consortium of three academic organisations led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). MSPEC brings together academics, policymakers, businesses, civil society and lived experience experts to offer independent, authoritative insight and analysis on contemporary forms of extreme exploitation, offering recommendations for more effective, evidence-based policy.

Previous to this, Wendy was a Postdoctoral Researcher with The Antislavery Knowledge Network (AKN) a major GCRF-funded project that aimed to inform more effective policy interventions in response to UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7. Working with a network of partners across sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, DRC, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Kenya), the project explored ways to address extreme practices of exploitation – including forms of modern slavery and human trafficking - through support of creative and community-led approaches.

Wendy is currently completing a book-length monograph entitled Exhibiting Haiti: The Art of Postcolonial Politics which explores the role Haiti has played in pioneering the efforts of postcolonial nation-states to negotiate international relations through cultural diplomacy. She was also the recipient of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2016-2020) based at the University of Nottingham where she undertook a project entitled The Spectacle of Universal Human Rights: A Century of Intergovernmental Display at World's Fairs. Through deep-archival research she examined the visions of humanitarianism and development that the UN (and its predecessor, the League of Nations) have shaped and promoted over the last century.

Research Overview

Personal Statement
Alex joined the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool in 2010. His research focuses on the politics and policy of immigration, and on efforts to combat forced labour and human trafficking. He has worked with a range of government and non-government organisations on research projects and regularly contributes to public debates.

Personal Statement
Hannes uses his Middle East expertise to drive wider debates in international political economy (IPE). Areas of particular interest include:

• Business elites
• Currencies and politics
• Global rankings
• Eurocentrism in IPE
• Sectarianism

Hannes is the author of Citizen Hariri: Neoliberal politics in Lebanon. He has published in a variety of academic journals including Review of International Political Economy, Globalizations, Politics, and Third World Quarterly, among others.

He has previously worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Georgetown University, King’s College London, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In 2019/20 he was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) Middle East Centre.

He uses his research background to teach courses on Middle East politics and international relations, international political economy, and the politics of development.

Hannes has briefed policy makers and diplomats from the UK, European Union, Sweden and Ireland on issues of Middle East politics. He is the editor of a report on housing, land, and property rights in Syria, Iraq, and Libya published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He has been quoted in reports by the Wall Street Journal, Guardian, and elsewhere.

Hannes is a Fellow of Carnegie-funded Project SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies & De-sectarianisation) at the University of Lancaster.

Previous leadership roles include interim Head of Department, Politics curriculum lead, department research lead and postgraduate research lead.

Hannes is interested in supervising PhD theses on Middle East politics and the politics of development.

Personal Statement
I came to ULMS from a background in Political Science and International Relations with previous appointments at European University Institute, University of Swansea and Queen Mary, University of London. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science in 2008 from University of Birmingham. I am a political economist with research interests across a number of topic areas addressed by Organisation Studies, but also other subject disciplines.

My work focuses on Global Political Economy and its variegated organisational forms. My research revolves around a number of multifaceted and multiscalar set of processes and crises that are currently transforming the global economy. I have for some time been concerned with "financialisation", but I am increasingly prioritising my work on the climate change crisis and its mitigation. I teach Global Political Economy and supervise postgraduate taught and research students on a range of topics.

I am an elected member of the University of Liverpool Senate committed to improving the governance of the University.

Personal Statement
Hello! I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool. I joined the Department as a Lecturer in Politics in September 2019. Before moving to Liverpool, I was a Juan de la Cierva-formación Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Political Science and Public Law at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and part of the amazing DEC research group. Previously, I was a researcher in the ERC-funded ResponsiveGov Project at the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, where I obtained my PhD with a dissertation investigating the effects of electoral incentives on government responsiveness to public opinion. I hold an MA (University of Florence) and a BA (University of Cagliari) in Political Science. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I was nominated for the ECPR Rising Star Award twice in 2020 and 2021. Sadly, I did not get it so I must be closer to be a falling star.

Research Overview
My research explores the following areas and questions:

- Mental health and politics: How do mental health problems influence the way people engage in politics? How does politics affect people's mental health? What are the determinants of policy attention and policy change on mental health?

- The psychological and political effects of COVID-19: How do COVID-19 stressors impact people's mental health and influence their political attitudes and behaviours?

- Mass-elite linkages: To what signals from public opinion do policymakers respond? To what extent do factors such as electoral incentives condition the link between public opinion and public policy? What are the consequences of government (non)responsiveness? What are the causes and consequences of voters' perceptions of parties' policy positions? Do voters punish and reward parties for what they say or what they do?

I invite any student who is interested in potential PhD research to contact me if they find any of the above areas appealing.

Currently, I am involved in the supervision of the following PhD students:

Melanie Kennedy-Diver: Where are the disabled politicians? The barriers, disablism and ableism of physically disabled political candidates in the UK

Will Oliver: Identity Entrepreneurs: To What Extent does a Polarizing Approach to Group Based Appeals Explain the Electoral Success of the Radical Right in Europe

Viktoriia Olishevska: Selective Politicization of Sports in Wartime: Evidence from Ukrainian Football Coverage, 2010-2025

Former PhD students:

Daniel Bowman: Framing a Wicked Problem: Understanding the Changing Attention of UK Parliamentarians and Political Parties to Mental Health, 1997-2024

Enis Porat: The Dynamics of Party Choice Among Immigrant Voters in The Netherlands: Immigrant Characteristics, Issue Ownership and Policy Positions on Mainstream and Migrant-Related Agendas

Personal Statement
I am a Reader in Politics and International Relations and the Deputy Head of the Department of Politics, having joined in 2017 as a Lecturer. Previously, I worked as a Teaching Associate at Aston University and as an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. I graduated with a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2016. The research was published as a book by Palgrave in 2019 with the title 'Foundations of Just Cross-Cultural Dialogue in Kant and African Political Thought'. Prior to this, I completed an MA in Research Methods in Politics and International Relations and a BA in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.

My areas of research specialism are critical border and migration studies, solidarity and activism, with a particular focus on Europe and responses to bordering. I have also worked on Kantian philosophy and African political thought, with a focus on Pan-Africanism and Négritude.

I teach a number of modules on political theory, as well as a third year specialism on migration studies, 'Solidarity, Activism and Borders in the EU'.

I am Deputy Director of the Europe and the World Centre and a Board Member of the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.

Research Overview
My research sits at the intersection of Political Geography, Applied Political Theory and International Relations and focuses on borders, migration and solidarity in Europe, with a particular interest in the Greek borderzones of the EU. I have worked since 2017 on mapping changes and developments in European bordering practices, particularly around displacement and encampment. As an activist-scholar, I am also interested in experiences of community, worldmaking and solidarity that take place often in opposition to systems of securitisation and exclusion. I have published extensively on border governance, citizenship, visual politics and provisions for refugees, as well as on Racial Capitalism and the Migration Fix.

In the past, I have also worked on cross-cultural interactions and how these can be achieved justly. My book 'Foundations of Just Cross-Cultural Dialogue in Kant and African Political Thought' explored these questions in the context of anti-colonial and postcolonial scholarship.

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of European bordering, Racial Capitalism, migrant solidarity and activism, as well as in African political thought.

Personal Statement
Professor David P. Dolowitz
Professor Dolowitz completed his BA in Politics and Psychology at the University of Puget Sound where he graduated in the top 1% of his class and received numerous awards. He completed his PH.D. at the University of Strathclyde, where he was awarded the Political Studies Association Lord Bryce Prize for the best Comparative and IR Ph.d. Professor Dolowitz joined the Univeristy of Liverpool in 1998 and has had a varied research and publishing career. His primary area of interest is in the the processes involved in policy transfer and learning occurring in the increasingly globalised world. In addition to the issues and processes associated with the movement of ideas and information around the globe, Professor Dolowitz has conducted research into topics as far reaching as the movement of social policies across the globe to the use of low impact development techniques in stormwater management to Rawlsian political philosophy, and even how to use the internet to conduct research. Professor Dolowitz has an active publication record ranging from books and chapters to publications in a large range of top journals across a number of disciplines including; public policy, political science, political ideologies, urban studies, government and politics and technology and education. Much of his work can be found in Google Scholar where he has over 13,000 citations.

Professor Dolowitz has successfully guided over 10 students to successful PH.D completion and invites any student who is interested in potential PH.D. research to contact him if they are interested in any of the following areas.

• All areas of lesson drawing, learning, and policy transfer
• All areas of knowledge updating related involved in public policy
• Areas involving comparative policy analysis - particularly in relation to the development and spread of policies
• Topics associated with public and social policy
• Issues associated with sustainable urban development – particularly the use and politics of SUDS/LID
• The role of idea transfer in the management of borders
• Urban Policymaking in China (particularly water management and urban governance)
• The role of knowledge updating and transfer in UK and global vaccination regimes


If interested in studying with Professor Dolowitz you will find yourself embedded in a vibrant, creative, culturally diverse city and University that provides a wonderful place to work and study. Students will find a Department of Politics that has been moving from strength to strength over the past few years. It offers a range of pathways though the field of politics and international studies. As part of the Departments growth it has developed expansive range of opportunities for students to undergo everything from a Parliamentary placement all the way to dedicated work-study opportunities, overseas study and internships in government and business.

Research Overview
Over the next three years I intend to build on three strands of research relating to my expertise and global leadership in the study of policy transfer and knowledge acquisition. The first strand of this will involve expanding my initial research into the ideological foundations and ideational movement of conditional cash transfer (CCTs) in South and Central America (in collaboration with Cecilia Osorio Gonnet - Universidad Alberto Hurtado; Osmany Porto – Universiade Federal de San Paulo).

The second element of my research track builds on this work but focuses on China where I have been working with colleagues to study the rise and spread of the river chief system (and its morphed form in lake and forest chiefs). This work has been complimented by research into the development of the grid management system as a new element of urban management policy. Overall, this strand of my research is spreading into a more general examination of policy making under Authoritarian regimes and the appropriateness of western policy making models in these systems.

Third, I am working with a team of colleagues to examine ways to combat vaccine hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries and the potential they offer to provide lessons to developed nations. This is initially being pursued through a Wellcome Trust Discovery grant proposal for submission in spring 2026.

Personal Statement
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool, which I joined in 2017. Prior to this, I was a Research Fellow at CAGE – Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy at the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. I studied Political Science at the Università degli Studi di Pavia (UNIPV) and received a PhD in Government from the Department of Government at the University of Essex in 2013.

I use the tools of quantitative political economy to study counterterrorist regulation, terrorism and public opinion, racial bias in law enforcement, and the effects of policies.

Personal Statement
Professor Richard Gillespie held the established Chair of Politics at the University of Liverpool until 2017 and previously held posts at the Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford, Warwick and Portsmouth. Author of many books and articles on Spanish, Mediterranean and Latin American politics, his book on the Montonero guerrilla movement became a best-seller in Argentina. Since 2010 his research has focused primarily on Catalan politics and he is currently writing a book for Routledge on Barcelona, the Left and the Independence Movement in Catalonia.

Personal Statement
My research focuses on global governance in peace and security, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and legitimacy and (de)legitimation of International Organisations. My research has been published in various journals, and I am the author of 'United Nations Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism' (Feb 2025, Oxford University Press; with O. Tansey, S. von Billerbeck and K. Oksamytna) and 'Local Legitimacy in Peacebuilding: Pathways to Compliance with International Police Reform' (Routledge, 2017).

I previously held post-doc positions in the War Studies Department at King's College London and in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen. Prior to that, I worked as a researcher for the Kosovo Stability Initiative in Pristina, Kosovo. I hold a PhD from the University of Reading.

I have published in a variety of international journals and most of my work is accessible via Research Gate.

Research Overview
My research focuses on global governance in peace and security and International Organisations. Specifically post-conflict peacebuilding and peacekeeping, predominanlty by the UN and EU, perceptions of legitimatcy and the effects of (de)legitimaton, and the role of coercion and violence in international peace operations. My regional expertise includes the Western Balkans and Haiti.

I am currently invovled in a number of projects. One focuses on political elites' strategic delegitimation of international organisations, specifically international criminal tribunals in the Western Balkans. It investigates the strategies of delegitimation used by political elites, the impact of political commentary on public legitimacy perceptions, and relegitimation strategies adopted by IOs in return. This project is funded by the British Academy and is a cooperation with Dr Theresa Squatrito at the LSE.

Another project investigates the long-term effects of UN peacekeeping operations on democratisation of host state governments. This project investigates the negative unintended consequences of UN peacekeeping on host state authoritarian practices, specifically it shoes that UN peacekeeping operations unintentionally enable authoritarian practices by host governments. This project is a cooperation with three others UK-based researchers and is funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council. Details and outputs can be found on our website Democratization and UN Peacebuilding (https://democratizationandpeacebuilding.org/publications).

Personal Statement
I hold a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute (EUI; Florence), and my research interests lie at the intersection of sociology, social psychology and comparative political science. My main areas of specialism are electoral behaviour, public opinion, political parties and statistical methods. I joined the University of Liverpool in 2015.

Many of my papers are available for download at Researchgate.

I am available to supervise PhD students who wish to do quantitative (or mixed methods) empirical research in areas broadly related to political polarization, emotions and politics, political behaviour (electoral or otherwise, including support for radical and extreme parties and movements) and political parties (membership and organization).

PhD supervision as primary supervisor:

Nawra Al-Lawati (completed): "The Substantive Representation of Women in a Non-Democracy. How Women Influence Politics in Oman."
Enis Porat: "Party Choice Among Migrant Voters: The Role of Migrant-Specific Factors, Migrant Issues and Spatial Voting."
Will Oliver: "Identity entrepreneurs: to what extent does a polarizing approach to group-based appeals explain the electoral success of the radical right in Europe?”

Personal Statement
Erika joined Politics department in 2004. She was Head of Department 2010-14 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. In 2017 she was awarded the named chair, the Bowes Chair in Politics. She is internationally recognized as an expert on studies of nations and nationalism generally, but specifically in Central and Eastern Europe, post- Soviet space and the Balkans. Within this general area, her research increasingly focuses on the significance of borders - physical and ideological - for understanding of nationalism, shaping of national identities, state policies and state behaviour, and the impact on the lives of those who live along or across these dividing lines (see the recently published 'The Dilemma of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe, Bristol University Press, May 2026).
She has published: Nationalism Theories and Cases, Edinburgh University Press, 2009; Democracy in New Europe (with Christopher Lord), Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; Nationalism and Democratisation Politics of Slovakia and Slovenia, Ashgate 2002 and re-published by Routledge in 2018. She has published articles in journals such as Europe-Asia Studies, East European Politics, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and others.

PhD SUPERVISION
Erika is interested to hear from potential PhDs in supervising topics in the areas of:
nationalism studies, ethnic politics, post-communist democratisation and Europeanisation processes, and minority protection.
Recently completed thesis under her primary supervision: Identity and Context: the case of Herzegovina; Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine in the Context of International Political Discourse; Externalising Migration: Bordering and Othering in the Journey of Asylum Seekers and Refugees, and the Production of joyful, violent and absent landscapes: walking with youth and politics in Eastern Bosnia.
Currently supervising: 'The sources of national populism in Serbia and Poland'. For more detail of her research interests see under 'Research'.

As a director of the Europe and the World Centre ( EWC) she is very involved in public engagement through conferences and debates that are organized by the Centre. Recently, the EWC has joint the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in partnership which will help to reach wider and more varied audiences and promotes greater student experiences.
As a member of various accreditation and evaluation committees at HE institutions in Central Europe, she spreads good practice in teaching, research, ethics and grant capture into other parts of Europe. She provides regular commentaries on political developments to British and international press - see the EWC website https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/europe-and-the-world/

Personal Statement
Dr Obert Hodzi is an International Relations scholar, specializing in the evolving role of emerging powers in global governance. His research provides critical insights into how non-Western actors influence international conflict, security frameworks, and the geopolitics of the Global South.

Obert is the author of several influential works, including his latest book, Aid for Dominance, which examines the strategic intersection of material resources and diplomatic discourse in U.S. and Chinese foreign policies. His previous book, The End of China’s Non-Intervention Policy in Africa, offered a pioneering account of China's shifting security role on the continent. These works draw upon his extensive empirical expertise in China-Africa relations and his background as a legal practitioner admitted to the High Court of Zimbabwe.

Prior to joining Liverpool, Obert held research positions at the University of Helsinki and has been a visiting scholar at Renmin University of China, the Nordic Africa Institute, and Boston University. His academic rigor is matched by deep field experience, having led democratic governance and transitional justice projects for international organizations across Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Germany. He currently serves on the board of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network.

Dr Hodzi invites inquiries from prospective PhD and Master’s students driven to explore the complexities of the Global South. He is particularly interested in supervising research in the following areas:

1. Foreign Policy Analysis: The grand strategies of emerging global and regional powers.

2. China-Africa Relations: Evolution of security, economic, and diplomatic norms.

3. Global Governance & Security: Conflict resolution and the role of non-Western actors.

4. African Politics: Human rights, democratic governance, and transitional justice.

Personal Statement
I joined the Department of Politics in September 2017, having finished my ESRC-funded PhD thesis at Queen Mary University of London. My most recent book is 'Whatever Happened To Tory Liverpool?', which can be purchased from Liverpool University Press, or accessed for free as an ebook, here.

Beyond Liverpool's political history I have also published widely on British party politics, specifically with regard to the voting behaviour and motivations of MPs in both the Conservative and Labour parties. My other research interests include political campaigning, the role of localised identities and their electoral salience, electoral patterns, and British politics more broadly. I am quantitatively trained and have had statistical work published in a range of leading journals such as BJPIR and JCMS.

I am a regular commentator on British politics, for both domestic and international audiences.

I would be happy to supervise potential candidates in all areas of British party politics, but especially in:

- The political and social history of Liverpool, or Merseyside more broadly
- Comparative local political history
- The history of local political parties
- Psephology, especially with regard to municipal elections or understudied elections
- Conservative Party history
- Electoral/campaigning strategies
- Local government and governance (both in the UK and abroad)
- Populism in a variety of contexts

Personal Statement
Dr Johnson is a Lecturer in International Relations and Director of the MA in IR and Security (MAIRS). Her research focuses on bargaining for peace, with a focus on the design and implementation of power-sharing settlements and the participation of former rebels in post-conflict democracies. She completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, in December 2015, and has since served as Fellow of Political Science in the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE), Fellow of Comparative Politics in the LSE's Government Department, and Postdoctoral Researcher on Democratisation and Emerging Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, a project funded by the Carnegie Endowment. She has extensive expertise in conflict resolution and post-conflict democratisation in Africa, with years of field research experience in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cote d'Ivoire.

Personal Statement
Nicholas joined the University and the Department in 2015, following completion of his DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford and two years as a fixed-term lecturer at Brunel University London. His research focuses on the relationship between inequality, conflict and democracy in world politics - exploring how historical struggles over citizenship and economic security have shaped the international system.

Personal Statement
I joined the Department of Politics in 2014, having previously held teaching and research positions at other institutions. I received my PhD in European Studies from the University of Salford in 2012.

Most of my research to date has focused on the EU as a counter-terrorism actor, with EU-UK security relations after Brexit being a further area of interest. An additional strand of my research is concerned with violent far-right actors. In 2022, I published a book, 'The European Union as a Global Counter-Terrorism Actor' (with Christian Kaunert and Sarah Léonard), and my work has appeared in prestigious journals, such as European Security, German Politics, and the Journal of European Integration.

I welcome PhD applications in any of my research areas.

Personal Statement
I joined the department in 2017 as Lecturer in Political Theory. Previously I worked at University College London, University of Edinburgh and King's College London. I obtained my PhD in Political Theory from University College London.

I work in analytical normative and conceptual political theory, with a particular focus on liberalism, secularism, and multiculturalism.

Personal Statement
I joined the University of Liverpool Department of Politics in 2023 as a lecturer in International Relations. Prior to this role, I was Research Director at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) in the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College University (KCL). I hold a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University. I also hold an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

I teach modules relating to International Relations and Peace and Conflict studies across a range of modules My areas of research specialism are peace and conflict studies, civil wars and insurgencies, foreign fighters, terrorism, and counter-terrorism studies. I also work on the intersection of gender and online violent extremism.

Personal Statement
Ulrich Petersohn is a Professor in International Politics at the University of Liverpool. He completed his Doctorate in Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2008 and holds a Diploma (Master equivalent) in Social Science from the University of Mannheim. Prior to joining the University of Liverpool, he worked as a research fellow at the German Institute for Foreign and Security Policy (Berlin, Germany) and the Centre for International Relations (Queen's University, Kingston, Canada). Ulrich was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA), the RAND Corporation (Arlington, USA), Chatham House (London, UK), and a senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich (Switzerland).

He has published two books, "Selective Humanitarianism in the Age of Universal Human Rights" (in German), and “The Markets for Force” (co-editor), and is co-author of the RAND-study "Hired Guns: Views about Armed Contractors in Operation Iraqi Freedom". His work has appeared in high-quality international journals, such as Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Interaction, European Journal of International Relations, Armed Forces and Society, and Cooperation & Conflict.

Personal Statement
Claire joined the University of Liverpool in 2017 and is currently a Reader in Politics. Her research focuses on abortion governance and reproductive politics, in particular how social movements shape processes of legal reform and access to abortion and the role of human rights frameworks in these processes. Her current work is primarily in Ireland and Malta and she has recently led a British Academy funded project 'Abortion law reform strategies and discourses: Reproductive Justice in Malta' and published a monograph with Manchester University Press 'Women’s Troubles: Gender and Feminist Politics in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland,' consolidating over a decades research into gender politics in Northern Ireland. Previously Claire worked on feminist peace research and is renewing this work with a nascent project addressing reproductive violence and the UN Women, Peace and Security Resolutions.

Find out more about her work here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/research/research-projects/abortion-reform-strategies/

Claire has supervised a number of PhD's to completion in the area of abortion stigma and creative methods; women's substantive representation in Oman; gendered and racialised constructions of difference in British asylum debates; and the Sustainable Development Goals role in securing reproductive health in Uganda. She welcomes potential doctoral students in the field of feminist and/or reproductive politics.