RAE 2008 confirms international excellence

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise confirms the status of the department as a leading centre of research on politics and international relations. Politics at Exeter is among the top 6 departments in the UK comparing the highest standards of world leading research. 85% of our research output is of international quality.

Other research information

Iraqi mosque

Iraqi mosque: Middle-East Politics is an area of research strength at Exeter

With an annual research income in excess of 720k, it enjoys the support of the Economic and Social, the Arts and Humanities, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councils, European sources such as EU and European Science Foundation, and Charitable Foundations such as Nuffield, Cadbury and Leverhulme. The results of its research are published in all the major political science journals and by the major Anglophone and continental academic and University Presses such as Blackwell, Sage, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Amsterdam, Kluwer, Peter Lang, etc.

Our Research interests fall into five clusters of interest:

All academic staff in the Department are active within at least one of these groups. Postgraduate students, whether working on their own or within larger projects led by staff members, are also integral members of clusters. Political Theory and Middle East clusters have journals associated with them and operate their own research seminars. There is a joint Departmental Research Seminar which hosts visiting speakers and provides a forum for discussion of staff research papers. Our community of research postgraduates (currently around 60) also operates its own cross-cluster seminar: GRIP (Graduate Research in Politics).

In addition to the clusters, there are also a number of University and School research centres which are more focussed and integrated, in many cases with external funding. These may fall within or across cluster boundaries. Currently there are Centres for: Advanced International Studies, Ethno-politics, European Governance, Rural Policy Research and Elections, Media and Parties.

Most of us also work with groups of scholars in other institutions, and within international networks. Details of many of these can be found on individual Staff web-pages.

Our current research themes include: electoral politics, the theory and practice of citizenship including issues of social exclusion and citizenship within the European Union, European integration, comparative regulatory policy, environmental policy, new public management and appraisal of public-service delivery, the application of economic models in policy analysis, the politics and political ideology of urban spaces in the Middle East, particularly the politics of Jerusalem, philosophical basis of international theorising, the international politics of new social movements, ethical dimensions of international politics and theories of International justice, theories of equality, theories of emergent culture and artificial intelligence, the history of political thought especially Hume, Burke, Hegel, Bergson and Deleuze.

We welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students about study in any of these areas. Please initially contact the staff member closest to your interests. The Department has been successful in securing Scholarships from a range of research councils and there are some bursaries and scholarships available from within the university and school. More information on funding.

Research news and events

New Association for the study of Political Thought

The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought (APT) has been established. It will promote the study of all branches of political thought.

ESRC to fund British Security & Foreign Policy study group

The British Security & Foreign Policy (BSFP) Study Group will provide an analysis of current security challenges and future trends. It is led by Tim Dunne (Centre of Advanced International Studies at Exeter); academic partners at Exeter include Gareth Stansfield and Anthony King.

Politics welcomes Bahrain delegation

A delegation of councillors from Bahrain visited the Department of Politics to learn more about graduate programmes such as the new Master of Public Administration. The group from Manama Municipal Council met academics from Politics and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies during the visit in October. A visit of MPs from the region is expected later in the year.

Jean Monnet Chair

Dr Alison Harcourt has been appointed Jean Monnet Chair in the Information Society by the European Commission (2008 - 2013).

AHRC project: Sharing Nature's Bounty

Dr Keith Hyams and Dr Robert Lamb have been awarded a 3-year AHRC grant (£178,000) to fund their research project on justice - 'Sharing Nature's Bounty: The Moral Case for a Universal Equal Endowment of Resources and its Political Implications'.