Bio

  • PhD Government, London School of Economics (1997).
  • MSc Government, London School of Economics (With Distinction) (1993).
  • BSocSc Political Science, University of Birmingham (First Class Honours) (1992).

I am Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the New Political Communication Unit in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London.

I was born in Middlesbrough in the north east of England. I studied for my undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham, where I received First Class Honours in Political Science. Thereafter, I moved to the London School of Economics, where I received a Masters (with Distinction) in Government (funded by an ESRC Master’s studentship). I remained at the LSE (funded by an ESRC studentship) to write my PhD in Government under the supervision of Professor Rodney Barker. My doctoral dissertation was published as my first book: Augmenting Democracy: Political Movements and Constitutional Reform During the Rise of Labour (1999).

Once my PhD was out of my system, my work turned towards a concern with interpreting and explaining the role of the internet in reshaping social and political life, and this has been my major preoccupation for more than a decade. For further details, please see my publications page.

I joined Royal Holloway as a Lecturer in January 2001, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2004, and to Professor of Political Science in 2008. I have held a Visiting Fellowship at the Oxford Internet Institute and a Visiting Scholarship at the American Political Science Association Centennial Centre, Washington, DC.

I was Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway (for the standard three-year term) from July 2006 to July 2009 and led the expansion of the Department, which saw it more than double in size during those three years. I founded the New Political Communication Unit in 2007. Since January 2011 I have been Admissions Tutor for the Department of Politics and International Relations.

In recent times I have made several national and local broadcast media appearances, including on BBC Radio Four’s Thinking Allowed, The Moral Maze, and The World at One, as well as on Sky News. I have been interviewed for articles in the national press, including The Independent, the Daily Telegraph, and the New Scientist, among others. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (colloquially known as “the RSA”).