School of Social & Political Sciences

It's a new year and we are pleased to welcome some new members of staff to the School:

Dr Craig Gurney - Housing Studies Lecturer

Craig's teaching and research interests include the meaning of home, the geography of harm and the social construction of housing tenure. His scholarship research interests are in feedback literacy, learning technology, particularly audience response tools, lecture capture and online learning. Craig joins us from the University of Cardiff where he won the Most Innovative Member of Staff prize at the 2018 and 2019 Enriching Student Life Awards. He is currently working on research related to health harming behaviours, suicide at home bereavement and the geography of harm and on the social construction of landlords’ responses to recent proposed rent reforms.  

Dr Ian Paterson - International Relations Lecturer

Ian's research focuses on the development of securitisation theory. He explores how audiences interpret political cues about the presence of a perceived threat by employing mixed-methods research designs; shifting the focus onto non-traditional security actors, including religious elites; and bringing this approach to bear on the under-theorised conceptual-twin, desecuritisation and broader processes of contesting security.  The second area of research focuses on migration politics, centring on the security-migration nexus and exploring drivers of immigration attitudes. 

Dr Holly Snape - British Academy Fellow

Holly's research project, 'The Politics of Poverty in China: Bringing the Party Back In' will focus on the Chinese Communist Party–state relationship, using poverty alleviation as a case study. Holly has spent the last 10 years living and working in China and her most recent research, which she carried out as a postdoctoral fellow at Peking University’s School of Government, focused on the Communist Party’s political discourse and its influence on Chinese domestic politics. Her most recent publications can be found in the Journal of Chinese Political Science and the Made in China Journal. 

Dr Alister Wedderburn - International Relations Lecturer

Alister's research is concerned with the ways in which international relations interact with social and cultural fields of practice, and with everyday lives. His work has been published in journals including the European Journal of International Relations, Millennium: Journal of International Studies and Review of International Studies. His first book, on the global politics of humour, will be published soon. He joins Glasgow from the Australian National University, where he was the John Vincent Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Relations. 

We look forward to working with all of our new staff members and hearing more about the work they are doing. best of luck in your new roles! 

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First published: 7 January 2020