Upcoming seminars

All seminars will take place between 1.15pm and 2.05pm unless otherwise stated.

If you want to attend any of our seminars, please arrive at the location 5 to 10 minutes before the start time. You do not need to book your place to attend.

Professor Liz Evans (University of Southampton)

• Title: Ableist or Accessible? A Comparative Analysis of Disability and European Parliaments
• Speaker: Professor Liz Evans, University of Southampton
• Date: 11 November 2025
• Location: 1 West, Room 2.104

About this seminar

During this seminar, Professor Liz Evans will discuss the following research:

The European Commission, Council of Europe, and the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe have all signalled their commitment to ensuring people with disabilities can play a full and active role in the democratic process. Yet, people with disabilities remain under-represented within parliaments (Waltz and Schippers, 2021; Evans and Reher, 2024). This is a significant problem because one in six of the global population has a disability (WHO, 2023). Strategies to address this under-representation include: raising awareness of the importance of inclusive politics (Guldvik et al; Sackey, 2013); promoting political engagement amongst people with disabilities (Schur et al, 2013); enhancing and improving voting processes (Priestly et al, 2016); making parties more accessible (Langford and Levesque, 2017; Evans, 2025); and ensuring people with disabilities are selected as candidates (Evans and Reher, 2022). However, even if all these issues are addressed, two clear problems remain: first, legislatures are often housed in old and inaccessible buildings; and second, parliamentary norms and processes often do not keep pace with inclusive innovations in the ‘outside world.’ This paper asks to what extent parliaments across Europe have addressed these two problems. Drawing on data from an original survey of European Parliaments, as well as interviews conducted in two European countries (Czechia and Finland), the research builds upon and brings together two key concepts to interpret the relationship between disability and parliaments: ableism and accessibility.

Dr Valentin Behr (Institut d'études avancées de Paris)

• Title: A Global New Right? The International of Conservative Intellectuals
• Speaker: Dr Valentin Behr, Institut d'études avancées de Paris
• Date: 18 November 2025
• Location: 1 West, Room 2.104

About this seminar

During this seminar, Dr Valentin Behr will discuss the following research:

While there is a growing body of academic literature devoted to the far-right and illiberalism, the transnational dimension of this phenomenon has been little explored. So far, it has been perceived and analysed mainly through the connections between political leaders, for example in the European Parliament or through the organisation of CPAC in Budapest. Its ideological drivers, through the intellectuals who contribute to it, remain a relatively unexplored area. It is also a promising avenue of research, given the transnational circulation of actors, ideas and discourses. Transnational flows of actors and ideas in Europe and between Europe and the United States take the form of meetings, think tanks and conferences that bring together not only intellectuals, but also policymakers, think tankers, and activists.

At the intersection of intellectual history and the sociology of intellectuals, this talk examines the International of Conservative Intellectuals from the perspective of its actors. After a brief presentation of the networks that form the International of Conservative Intellectuals, I focus my analysis on ‘Western guests’ in Hungary and Poland since the 2010s. Gathered around think tanks (Danube Institute), universities (Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Collegium Intermarium), outlets (The European Conservative) and conferences (Polska Wielki Projekt), they reflect a desire to constitute an ‘intellectual conservatism’ and testify to an ongoing reconfiguration of the Global Right along illiberal lines. Finally, I reflect on the role of intellectual entrepreneurs in political mobilisation and on the privileged space that Central Europe represents for this reconfiguration of the Global Right.

Dr Consuelo Thiers (University of Edinburgh)

• Titles: From Confrontation to Cooperation: How Leaders' Beliefs Shape Enduring Interstate Rivalries
• Speaker: Dr Consuelo Thiers, University of Edinburgh
• Date: 25 November 2025
• Location: 1 West, Room 3.107

About this seminar

During this seminar, Dr Consuelo Thiers will discuss the following research:

This study explores the role of political leaders' beliefs in shaping the dynamics of cooperation and conflict in Latin American spatial rivalries, focusing on the cases of Chile-Peru and Chile-Bolivia. Using the Operational Code Analysis (OCA) framework, it investigates how leaders' beliefs about the political landscape and their strategic preferences correlate with periods of cooperation and escalation. By incorporating political psychology, the study goes beyond structural factors to assess how leaders’ beliefs impact interstate relations. It analyses five presidents from Chile, Bolivia, and Peru during key periods of cooperation and tension from 2006 to 2014, highlighting the importance of considering leaders' beliefs on both sides of the rivalry. The findings suggest that cooperative periods have occurred when rival leaders share congruent, positive beliefs and favour collaborative strategies. In contrast, escalation has taken place when leaders exhibit divergences in their views, particularly when one leader harbours negative perceptions and adopts a more hostile stance. Drawing on frustration-aggression theory, the research also examines how leaders' perceived control over political events shapes their foreign policy decisions. By focusing on the psychological drivers of rivalries, this study not only deepens our understanding of minor power conflicts in Latin America but also contributes to the broader literature on rivalry dynamics, offering insights into the micro-foundations of International Relations and how leaders’ beliefs shape long-term conflict and cooperation in non-militarised contexts.

Professor Rudra Sil (University of Pennsylvania)

• Title: What Comparative Area Studies (CAS) Brings to the Table: Leveraging and Integrating Area-Based Knowledge in the Social Sciences
• Speaker: Professor Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania
• Date: 2 December 2025
• Location: 1 West, Room 2.102

About this seminar

During this seminar, Professor Rudra Sil will discuss the following research:

In a previous volume, Comparative Area Studies: Methodological Rationales and Cross-Regional Applications (Oxford University Press, 2018), my colleagues and I laid out the distinctive features and value-added of “comparative area studies” (CAS) against the backdrop of ongoing methodological debates in the social sciences. In brief, CAS seeks to retain and utilize the in-depth, immersive knowledge associated with area-based training and expertise while encouraging contextualized comparisons involving engagement with research done on cases brought in from other, less familiar areas. The goal is not full-blown causal generalizations but rather novel interpretations and middle-range analyses that may elude researchers with a singular focus on a single area or relying on aggregage data. Since the publication of the 2018 volume, a new cohort of (mostly qualitative) researchers has sought to connect a growing range of scholarly endeavors to CAS while asking important questions about its epistemological boundaries and about the institutional pressures that scholars pursuing CAS may face. These questions have motivated a new volume, Advancing Comparative Area Studies: Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2025), which brings in more varied approaches and topics along with some new voices, including those of fifteen scholars who had no connection to the first volume. The latter book showcases how CAS can accommodate a wider range of area-based scholarship predicated on more varied methodological and epistemological principles. This includes not only contextualized comparisons of countries from different regions but also interpretive work, sub-national comparisons, as well as inter-regional comparisons addressing topics such as global human rights and the rise of regional powers that go beyond comparative politics (which was the focus of the first volume). Moreover, the volume offers practical, realistic discussions of how our current institutional architecture can be adapted to support cross-regional comparative research and to better connect different area studies communities – without undermining the quality of area-specific training in the United States or Europe. Thus, the promise of the CAS framework lies in a concerted effort to reinvigorate area studies, to encourage members of multiple area studies communities to engage more with each other around specific issues, and to leverage contextualized comparisons across regions so as to stimulate fresh interpretations and new conceptual frameworks for the social sciences.

Previous seminars

2025

• X Marks the Spot: The Performance of Precise Targeted Killing of Terrorists on Social Media - Dr Chris Fuller (University of Southampton)
• Strategic Representation of Women in Radical Right Parties: Evidence from Regional Council Elections in Italy - Rosella Merullo (Universität Hamburg)
• Issue Ownership and Niche Parties’ Longevity in Consociations - Dr Timofey Agarin, (Queen’s University Belfast)

2024

• Desertion and Conscientious Objection in the Context of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Dr Dina Bolokan Université de Neuchâtel
• ChatGPT as a tool for reflective assessment - Professor Felia Allum, University of Bath
• Bringing War Back In: Victory, Defeat, and the State in Latin America - Dr Luis Schenoni, University College London
• Colliding Catastrophes: Climate Change and Online Misinformation - Dr Susannah Crockford, University of Exeter
• Dump her in Anatolia: Violent language in populist discourse - Lucas Scheel, University of Adelaide
• Podcasts for Assessment and Feedback__ - Professor Hilde Coffe, University of Bath
• Linking epistemological and ontological in/security: Hungary's identity crisis, Russian disinformation and Hungarians' vernacular insecurity - Dr Alena Drieschova, University of Cambridge
• Normative Agency of African States in UN Cybernorms Processes - Ndidi Olibamoyo, University of Bath
• Brexit, Facebook, and Transnational Right-Wing Populism - Dr Natalie-Anne Hall, Loughborough University
• The Emergence of Roles in British Foreign Policy: How the UK Interprets Russian Disinformation - Sean Garrett, University of Bath
• Shi'ite Environmental Ethics in a Globalising World: Man and Nature in M.H. Tabatabai's 'Ethics of Moderation' - Dr Bianka Speidl, University of Exeter
• Interpreting EU27-UK Parliamentary Diplomacy - Dr Cherry Miller, University of Glasgow
• Female Empowerment and Extreme Violence against Women - Dr Sara Polo, University of Essex
• The Role of Conflict-Seeking and Conflict-Avoidance in Explaining Gender Gaps in Political Engagement - Dr Rosalind Shorrocks, University of Manchester
• From Ontological Security to Existential Threat: Retracing the Emergence of Contemporary Anti-Technology - Dr Mauro Lubrano, University of Bath
• Meadows and Uplands: Leave’s Vision of the Post-Referendum Good Life - Dr Mike Bolt, University of Bath
• How to Encourage Citizen Empowerment in Behavioural Public Policy - Professor Peter John, King's College London

2023

• Hegel in Italy: How Ideas Became Political Practice - Dr Fernanda Gallo, University of Cambridge
• The UK Voter ID Reform: Effects on Voter Attitudes and Behaviour - Professor Petra Schleiter, University of Oxford
• "Enemies Within/Enemies Without": How Do Emotional and Security-Based Fears of "Infiltration" Direct and Shape Campaigns of Mass Violence? - Dr Leah Owen, Swansea University
• Female Empowerment and Extreme Violence against Women - Dr Sara Polo, University of Essex
• Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits - Dr Robert Geist-Pinfold, Durham University
• Meme-ing Waves: Unpacking Political Narratives in the Romanian Context - Ms Mimi Mihailescu, University of Bath
• The Syrian Conflict in the News: Coverage of the War and the Crisis of US Journalism - Dr Gabriel Huland, University of Bath
• En/Countering the State: Understanding Citizen Agency at the Front Lines of Democratic Government - Professor John Boswell, University of Southampton
• Class, Power, Democratic Socialism: The Politics and Legacy of Aneurin Bevan - Dr Nye Davis, Cardiff University