The Department of Politics and Philosophy maintains an active programme of research dissemination, organised around seminar series and conferences. The Department hosts The Human Sciences Seminar, series launched by Wolf Mays and David Melling in 1979, and the yearly Workshops in Political Theory
Philosophy Research
The Philosophy Section within the Department is a leading centre for research and post-graduate study in Continental Philosophy and the history of Modern European Philosophy in the North-West. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the department was recognised for its international excellence: 40% of the material submitted was classified in the top two categories, 4* and 3*, and 95% in the top three categories.
The Section is home to The Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, edited by Dr. Ullrich Haase and the assistant editor Dr. Keith Crome, and the current President of the Society is Professor Joanna Hodge. The Section is also home to the Palgrave Macmillan Renewing Philosophy Series, edited by Dr. Gary Banham, and Dr. Mark Sinclair is a member of the editorial team producing the Bulletin heideggérien. Follow the links for more detail concerning the research activities of all the members of the Philosophy Section, including those of our most recent hires, Dr. Wahida Khandker, and Dr. Henry Somers-Hall, who is editing the Cambridge Companion to Deleuze.
The Philosophy Section hosted several events in recent years, including a conference marking the first English translation of Solomon Maimon’s Essay on Transcendental Philosophy in August 2010 and a workshop on the philosophy and art of Pierre Klossowski.
Politics Research
Staff in the Politics section of the Department are engaged in a diverse range of research topics, with the primary areas of interest being the role of the Third Sector in the delivery of Public Services, the European Union, Latin American Politics, Social Theory and Communal Studies and the foreign policy of the United States. Recent publications include:
Peter Barberis, ‘The morality of open government’ in R. Chapman & M. Hunt (eds) Freedom of Information (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010).
Katherine Duffy and Annabel Kiernan. 2010-2011 Third Sector European Network, Research Report, European Funding and the Work Programme – A Space for Social Inclusion?
Geraldine Lievesley, Francisco Dominguez and Steve Ludlam (eds), Right Wing Politics in the New Latin America – Reaction and Revolt, (London: Zed Books 2011).
Mike Tyldesley, The Thought of Sorbonne Professor Michel Maffesoli (1944-): Sociologist of Postmodernity, (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press 2010).
Steven Hurst, The United States and Iraq since 1979: Hegemony Oil and War (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009).
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise members of the Politics section were entered in to the European Studies submission. 20% of the submitted work was judged to be of 3* standard and 50% was graded as 2*.
Mike Tyldesley’s most recent book, (co-edited with Matthew Jeffries), Rolf Gardiner; Folk, Nature and Culture in Interwar Britain ( Farnham: Ashgate, 2011) has been nominated for the Katherin Briggs award of the Folklore Society. Steven Hurst was an invited participant in the `Experts Seminars’ which were organised to inform the investigations conducted by the `Iraq Inquiry’ chaired by Sir John Chilcott.
Members of the section have excellent links with the wider research communities in their respective areas of expertise. In recent years the Department has hosted the very successful `Workshops in Political Theory’ and the `Alternative Futures and Popular Protest’ conference on an annual basis. In 2011-12 it will host the annual conference of the American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association and Annabel Kiernan will be co-ordinating Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Annual Research Programme on the theme of ‘Community’. Peter Barberis is a member of the Joint University Council Public Administration Committee
There are currently ten PhD students being supervised by staff in the Politics Section.
For further information about the 2012 American Politics Group Conference visit www.theapg.co.uk, or contact the conference convener Jonathan Rodwell at j.rodwell@mmu.ac.uk