Look at our Visiting Professors.

Matthew Flinders is Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield and also sir Walter Murdoch Adjunt Distinguished Professor in Governance and Public Policy at Murdoch University. He is the co-author of the international journal Policy & Politics and his books include Multi-Level Governance (co-edited, 2004), Democratic Drift (2008), Walking Without Order (2009), The Oxford Handbook of British Politics (co-edited, 2010) and Defending Politics (2012) (all Oxford University Press). A regular writer and presenter for a number of national newspaper, international websites and the BBC, Prof. Flinders is the former recipient of the Harrison Prize (2002), Richard Rose Prize (2004), Mackenzie Prize (2009)_, the Political Studies Associations ‘ Communicator of the Year’ Award (2012), the Sam Aaronovitch Memorial Prize (2012) and an ESRC ‘Impact Champion’ Award (2012).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0150mt8

 

Felicity Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Governance and Public Policy, and joined the Department of Politics in 2012. She has previously been a member of the Department of Politics at the University of York as a Lecturer in Public Policy; held a Leverhulme Fellowship in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield; and was awarded an ESRC-funded Post Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Exeter.

Her research interests encompasses a number of areas, including: government, governance and state capacity; constitutional reform; political leadership; policy design, implementation and service delivery; crisis management; and, citizen expectations and engagement. Her work draws upon a wide range of empirical contexts, and she applies a broad approach to analysing to public policy in a comparative perspective, drawing inferences and lessons across different countries, sectors, policy areas and periods of time. Her published work includes Government Capacity in an Evolving State (2013), a book which analyses the complexities of policy-making and implementation in the British state.

 

Katharine Dommett is Deputy Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Katharine leads on the Training strand of the Centre’s work, developing and administering courses designed to equip academics with the skills necessary to enhance their public engagement activities.

Katharine’s research focuses on political parties and ideology, analysing the way in which politicians communicate with the public and how this affects engagement. Primarily her work has focused on the UK, analysing the political rhetoric of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties to determine how their ideological messages are presented and change over time. She is also interested in expectation management and the implications of governance structures, applying her research to consider why some initiatives succeed and others fail.  Katharine is also currently working as a Research Fellow on the ESRC funded ‘Shrinking the State’ collaborative project between the Universities of Sheffield, Birmingham and Southern California. The project explores the current British Coalition Government’s attempt to reform arms’ length bodies, analysing whether and to what extent the policy goals of a smaller, smarter, cheaper state will be delivered.

 

Jennifer Smith joined the University of Sheffield in 2013 as Marketing Officer for the Department of Politics.

Supporting the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics, Jenny is responsible for co-ordinating marketing and publicity activities that promote the centre’s cutting-edge research and encourage public engagement with the debates and discussions being sparked by the Crick Centre.

Before joining the University of Sheffield, Jenny worked as a marketing copywriter for a private sector education company responsible for creating a market-leading online careers information, advice and guidance platform aimed at bridging the gap between education and employment.

 

 

 

Daniel Villalba is the  IT Manager for Politics at the University of Sheffield.  Daniel is in charge of giving support to staff and students about the use of technology in the department from the creation of a website, the use of the online learning environment or the creation of dynamic resources to be use in class or for academic purposes.

As a member of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre, Daniel is involved in the content and the creation of the website (crickcentre.org) and the creation of all audiovisual and support for conferences and different events.

 

 

 

Dr. Matt Sleat joined the Department in 2007, having previously been a fellow in Government at the LSE and a visiting fellow at the Social and Political Theory Research Programme at the Australia National University. He is the author of several books and articles in which he argues for the need to have a more realistic understanding of politics, and in particular the nature and limits of the political, and explores the relationship between the theory of politics and political practice. He is also currently working on a project that explores the ethical dimension of cyber-warfare and the use of cyber-weapons.

 

 

 

 

Gemma Bennett joined the University of Sheffield in 2010, supporting the International Office in administration, finance and HR; she is now the Finance Officer at the Department of Politics and provides administrative assistance to The Crick Centre.

Gemma supports the day-to-day activities of the Centre, including finance administration, co-ordination of events and development of office systems.

Before joining the University, Gemma worked at a Sector Skills Council, managing the development of skills standards and qualifications.

 

 

 

Marc Geddes is currently a second-year doctoral student at the Department of Politics. My doctoral thesis contributes to the extensive literature on the relationship between parliament and government, principally by exploring the effect of parliamentary oversight of public appointments on parliamentary-executive relationships.
He is currently an associate researcher for the Crick Centre and intend to use his research on public appointments and parliament to further the public’s understanding of parliament and its role in holding the government to account. Finally, in doing so, he will hope to defend parliament and parliamentarians as important actors in the political process of British politics.

 

 

 

Jack Corbett is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Australian National University’s School of International, Political and Strategic Studies. His research interests include anti-politics, depoliticization and the demonisation of politicians, with a focus on developing countries and the Pacific Islands in particular. Jack is currently finalising a book manuscript titled Being Political: Politicians and Politics in the Pacific Islands. For more see: http://anu-au.academia.edu/JackCorbett

 

 

 

 

From January 2014 Matthew Wood will be working at the Crick Centre as a postdoctoral researcher. Matthew’s doctoral thesis, submitted in September 2013, is funded through the ESRC 1+3 scheme and is entitled ‘Depoliticisation, Crisis and Governance’. His research interests primarily revolve around applying the concepts of politicisation and depoliticisation to analysing changing forms of governance, and he is co-convenor of the PSA Special Group on Anti-politics and (De)politicisation. Wider research interests include moral panics, democratic governance, ‘hyper-democracy’, and the relevance debate in political science. Matthew has held visiting fellowships at the UK Cabinet Office and the ANZSOG Institute for Governance, University of Canberra, and is country manager for the UK in the global Varieties of Democracy research project. He has forthcoming publications in Politics and Policy & Politics.

 

Hendrik Wagenaar is a policy scholar with a wide experience in research, engagement and training in the domain of urban policy/politics. In the last decade his research has focused on participatory democracy in the context of the transformation of capitalist democracy. Currently he researches civic enterprises in the domains of energy and long-term care. In addition he works on understanding and promoting collaborative governance in public administration. He contributes to the Centre’s research clusters ” Research into new democratic experiments” and ” What works in relation to fostering public engagement and participation”.  Hendrik is an expert on the co-production of research with citizens and policy makers and “Research-led and partnership-based teaching with a strong skills element