DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20131

DEPARTMENTAL

NEWSWIRE

TRINITY TERM 2013

Dear Colleagues,

Let me start with congratulations (and commiserations) to Liz Frazer on her election as the next Head of Department, starting January 1st next year. We all know Liz to be a fair, frank and far-sighted person, just the qualities that the Department needs as it goes forward. Thanks to her for being willing to serve.

There will also be a change in Deputy Head of Department. Paul Martin, who has done the job outstandingly over the last couple of years, is moving on to bigger things after being elected as the next Assessor. He will step down as DHoD also at the end of the calendar year. Liz and I are discussing potential successors. You may get a phone call! But if anyone would like to volunteer, just drop us an email! Thanks also to Paul for his service.

Two very good bits of news about research funding: congratulations to Petra Schleiter and Richard Caplan on their successful applications for British Academy Research Fellowships!

The last term has been overwhelmingly devoted to recruitment – to permanent posts in the Department and to doctoral and graduate places and studentships. It is quite eye-opening how difficult this can be. Clearly, we are working in an increasingly competitive market. We have advantages and attractions but I think it will be necessary constantly to up our game if we are to maintain our position. Nonetheless, I think there is considerable good news.

Colleagues will have been aware that we had six ULs for which we advertised and interviewed last term. As of today, we have had five acceptances. At St Hugh’s, we have recruited David Doyle from Dublin City University to a ULTF (jointly with SIAS) in Latin America; at St Anne’s, Todd Hall will join us from the University of Toronto to take up a ULTF in IR with a specialism in China; we welcome Dan Butt back from the University of Bristol to a ULTF in Political Theory at Balliol; we have reached agreement with Jane Gingrich from the University of Minnesota to take up a ULTF in Comparative Political Economy at Magdalen; and also from

CONTENTS

1 From the Head of Department

3 People• New Staff and leavers• New Visitors• Profile: Harry Verhoeven• Profile: Nicola Horsburgh• Profile: Andrew Melling• News from the Courses Team

7 Research• Research Bulletin Board• Research Project Highlights• RISJ New Publications• Research funding deadlines

11 News and Views• Oxford Alumni Travellers• Politics in Spires Blog• DPIR Alumni Event on Europe• Noticeboard• DPIR publicity online

15 Copy deadline: noughth week Michaelmas term 2013

Letter from the Head of Department - Trinity term 2013

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20132

the University of Minnesota, Ben Ansell will take up the ULNTF in Comparative Democratisation at Nuffield. (Jane and Ben are indeed a team. We do not do spousal hires! But a great advantage – if very complicating element – of having so many jobs up for grabs at the same time is that spouses have the opportunity to apply in the same round. I have no doubt that we would have been unable to recruit Jane and Ben had that opportunity not been there.) So, that leaves just the ULNTF in Comparative Political Institutions to be decided and I am hopeful that an offer out on that post will soon be accepted too.

I am very grateful to all colleagues who have assisted in this recruitment drive and not only those who served on the appointment panels but also all of you who encouraged good applicants. May I ask you all to make another effort in this regard? Thanks largely to College fund-raising supplemented by the Teaching Fund, we are now advertising to fill the vacant ULTF in Comparative Politics and Government (including the UK) at Brasenose. Do spread the word to strong candidates. We hope to fill the post this term. Seven excellent new permanent appointments in one year will be quite an achievement for the Department’s future. And when we add to that a number of fixed term posts that are also currently in process, we hope to have added considerably to the strength of our REF submission.

Colleagues will also recall that we conducted a ‘size and shape’ review of the Department which has led to a modest but significant reduction in our overall FTE. Salary savings were applied to supporting graduate studentships, our number one fund raising priority. Through these savings we have been able almost to double the studentship funding we have available. We also reviewed how we were using our studentships and decided to concentrate it on fully funding doctoral candidates – recruiting the best new applicants and retaining the best of our MPhils. I also asked all of you to lobby your colleges to see if there was the possibility of joint funding that would enable the Department’s money to go much further in studentship support. I have been very gratified that we had positive responses already from Nuffield, Christ Church, Univ, St Cross, Corpus Christi and LMH and we have others under discussion. Altogether, with continuing success in obtaining ESRC and AHRC awards, we have significantly increased the number of fully funded students. The trouble is, as I mentioned above, our competitors are upping their game too. The LSE in particular now offers full funding to all incoming doctoral students for four years! So, as with academic staff recruitment, we can pause only briefly to congratulate ourselves on making progress. The challenge of funding research students is on-going. Again, please do take the possibility of joint College-Department funding to your Senior Tutors and Academic Committees!

I think that is all the hard news for now. There are other things in the pipeline. Discussions continue regarding a possible terminal one year MSc. Taking on board the helpful guidelines that emerged from discussion at Sub-Faculty at the beginning of Hilary, we have submitted an application to the Nuffield Foundation for funding to support a ‘step change’ in the provision of Quantitative Methods training to our undergraduates. The thrust of the proposal was to provide students with the skills that will enable them better to understand substantive issues in comparative politics. I can assure colleagues that what we propose to do will not ‘destroy PPE as we know it’ and that a plurality of pathways to the study of Politics will remain open! Of course, having given applicants almost no time to prepare their bids, the funding agencies immediately gave themselves more time to assess them. We now hope to hear in July. I need to thank Paul Martin for his enormous efforts in bringing the application together.

Finally, we are back in exams season. Thanks to all of you for agreeing the marking roster. I know you will be very supportive of the Courses Team, which is operating under incredible pressure from short staffing. Hopefully, we will have the new Courses Team structure and additional personnel in place soon.

Best wishes,

Stephen Whitefield

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20133

People

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Academic Staff:

• Todd Hall, UL in International Relations in association with St Anne’s (commences 1 July 2013)

• Gwen Sasse, returns from maternity leave (30 June 2013)• Dominic Johnson, Alastair Buchan Chair in International Relations (1 June 2013)

Research Staff:

• Michal Wenzel, Research Fellow, MDCEE• Meera Selva, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) Research Officer

Administrative Staff:

• Tanya Vale, RISJ Administrator (commenced 24 April 2013)

We wish the following leavers well:

Academic Staff:

• Walter C Ladwig III (August 2013)

Research Staff:

• Serena Sharma, Research Associate (30 June 2013)

Administrative Staff:

• Sara Kalim, RISJ Administrator (May 2013)• Kimberley Adams, Undergraduate Studies Officer (April 2013)

The Department would like to welcome the following new staff:

The Department would like to welcome the following new visitor:

• Professor Martha Finnemore, George Washington University (VRF)

Research centre and programme visitors are listed under each centre/programme.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20134

Profile: Harry Verhoeven

Whilst I have always thrived on pursuing widely differing intellectual horizons, my central research interest is the behaviour and imagination of political elites in developing countries, particularly Africa: how do people come to power? How do they wield it and what objectives do they pursue? What are their formative sociological experiences that feed into the dominant, often contradictory ideas that characterise their rule? And why, in so called African post-liberation regimes, is there a tendency for co-conspirators to have a violent falling-out that undermines so many of the gains that those in power sacrificed everything for? These are the questions that have intrigued me - both while preparing for my Oxford DPhil at St Cross College/ DPIR, and in my postdoctoral research.

Currently, I am focusing on three main projects. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, Global Norm Competition and R2P studies the ideas held by elites in China, India, Brazil and South Africa about international order, international security and the ‘responsibility to protect’. As economic power is shifting, this research project is interested in what the repercussions of this shift are on the international political front. What ideas about regional stability, global order and effective governance are informing their manoeuvres on the international stage? Which agendas are emerging powers putting forward to reform the dominant international

institutions, inside the UN system and outside it? And how do they engage with norms eagerly advanced for years by the once all dominant West, like the responsibility to protect populations in case of genocide and/or crimes against humanity?

I’m currently also continuing older research. My DPhil analysed how paradigms of water as ‘power’ and hydro-infrastructure as ‘civilisation/development’ have underpinned violent state-building processes in contemporary Sudan. Modern projects of accumulation of wealth and power by elites have been anchored in an economic system that is strongly dependent on hydro-infrastructure on the Nile. I focus on the revolutionary experiment in Khartoum since 1989: the “hydro-agricultural mission” of Sudan’s current military-Islamist regime intends to mark a clear break with traditional developing country experiences with state-building, inter alia by instrumentalising water –in the form of dams, irrigation infrastructure and capital-intensive large-scale agriculture- as the material foundation of an overhaul of the political economy of one of the world’s poorest countries. This has served to exclude entire swathes of the population from decision making and to impose a Dam Programme that favours the same elites at the expense of Sudan’s peripheral regions. My doctorate is currently being turned into a manuscript for a monograph entitled Water, Civilisation and Power: The Hydropolitics of Military-Islamist Rule in Sudan.

Finally, Assistant-Professor Philip Roessler (College of William & Mary, Virginia) and I are finishing our forthcoming book on the Great African War. In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youth coalesced in Eastern Congo to challenge Mobutu Seso Seko, who had ruled for 31 years. Backed by Rwandan and Ugandan firepower, the

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Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo/Zaire (AFDL) marched over 1,000km to crush the dictatorship. The fall of Kinshasa in May 1997 was heralded as a new beginning for impoverished Congo and a second independence for Central Africa as a whole. Bill Clinton heaped praise on the ‘new African leaders’– all of whom knew each other well, having developed a unique camaraderie and high degree of personal trust on the region’s battlefronts. However, within 15 months of Mobutu’s demise the coalition that was to transform Africa fell apart. The AFDL’s collapse triggered a confrontation that became our planet’s deadliest conflict since World War II, sucking in eight African countries. The fratricide between the heroes of the war of liberation against Mobutu turned Congo into the world’s least developed country. Our book dissects the internal dynamics of the AFDL, analysing intra-movement politics almost week by week between October 1996 and August 1998. Based on unique access to the protagonists, our monograph will tell –for the very first time- the inside history of how and why Africa’s Great War was unleashed.

Harry Verhoeven is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the DPIR and Convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20135

In October 2012, I started a three year British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship based at ELAC, a research cluster within DPIR. I had started the application a year earlier, at the suggestion of Professor Jennifer Welsh, a co-director of ELAC. I was delighted with the award because it meant I could stay in Oxford and continue to do research on a subject I am extremely passionate about, namely China and nuclear weapons. In particular, my BA project explores what it means to be a responsible nuclear armed state in the global nuclear order, with a focus on China. The project addresses three main questions: What does it mean to be a responsible nuclear armed state? In what ways does China demonstrate it is a responsible nuclear armed state today? Lastly, how far do norms, incentives and security

Profile: Nicola Horsburgh

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concerns determine whether China is a responsible nuclear power? The normative and contemporary nature of the project is deliberate since my DPhil thesis, which I completed at DPIR in early 2012, was more historical, examining China’s engagement with global nuclear order since 1949. I’m now turning the DPhil thesis into a book, drawing specifically on China’s role and participation in global nuclear politics since 1949.

Beyond the BA fellowship, I have a number of side research projects on the go: a co-edited volume on innovation in China with Astrid Nordin and Shaun Breslin, coming out with Routledge later this year, as well as several co-authored pieces in progress: a paper on Chinese and Indian approaches to nuclear restraint with Kate Sullivan here at Oxford; and an article with Amy King, from the Australia National University, on the use of Chinese language sources in the study of China and International Relations. Later this year, I will contribute to an international nuclear history project examining China’s reactions to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Basing the BA project at the department was an obvious choice

as I feel strongly rooted both to DPIR and to my college, St Antony’s. I initially came to Oxford in 2006 for an MPhil in Modern Chinese Studies. Upon completion of the MPhil, I began a DPhil, supervised by Professor Rosemary Foot, a leading expert on China – indeed the opportunity to learn from Professor Foot was the reason I applied to Oxford in the first place. Soon after my DPhil, I was fortunate to work for Professor Andrew Hurrell on his Concerts of Power project as a Junior Research Fellow – a project I still collaborate on. These opportunities, among many since 2006, have been immensely rewarding, not least because of the stimulating intellectual experience they have provided, but also because DPIR, ELAC, as well as St Antony’s and the Chinese Institute, have some of best minds on China and East Asia, IR theory, and military affairs, especially as the latter relates to the ethics of armed conflict. In essence, I can’t think of a better place from which to start my academic career.

Nicola Horsburgh is British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in China and Nuclear Responsibility in the Global Nuclear Order.

Profile: Andrew MellingIn one respect this introduction is somewhat belated, if not an outright anachronism, since I’ve worked in the Department for a number of years now and you have probably encountered me at one time or another. So, unless you’re a newcomer or a pariah, I am already a familiar face to many of you. The occasion that has prompted the request for me to contribute to this edition of Newswire is the forthcoming reorganisation of the DPIR’s courses administration, in which the current

division of labour will be restructured fairly radically. It is envisaged that I will have less involvement in the day-to-day running of the MPhil programmes so that my energies can be dedicated to the concerns and interests of doctoral students.

I’ll try to avoid the temptation, or perhaps I mean indulgence, in writing a piece of this nature to lapse into a chronological, autobiographical account, though I suppose that some

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20136

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News from the Courses Team

Following a review of the structure and staff resource within the Courses Team Administration, a number of changes are taking place. We are investing in an additional post within the Team and reconfiguring some roles as follows:

• MPhil/MSc Programme Co-ordinator (full-time) – providing support for the MPhil in International Relations, MPhil in Political Theory and MSc in Political Theory Research;

• MPhil/MSc Programme Co-ordinator (full-time) – providing support for the MPhil in Comparative Government, MPhil in European Politics and Society and MSc in Politics Research. We are currently recruiting for these two posts and hope to appoint for the beginning of June 2013.

• DPhil Programme Co-ordinator – Andrew Melling’s role will be refocused to provide dedicated support to the graduate research programmes of the Department, working closely with the DGSs, DRTs, faculty and graduate student community.

We are also recruiting to the Undergraduate Studies Co-ordinator post left vacant by Kim Adams departure. This post will also provide some support to the rest of the team.

We are very positive about these changes and look forward to being able to deliver an increased level of support from a larger team. It will, of course, take us a little time to recruit to the vacancies and transition into the new arrangements and we continue to appreciate your patience until we are fully staffed again.

Maria Moreno, Courses Manager

Photo: Susan Taylor

personal detail is unavoidable. I grew up in the North East, in a town to which Tony Hancock more than once had recourse as the punch line to a sketch, and studied History with a special focus on Russia at Lancaster University, under the supervision of Alan Wood, one of the few Western specialists on Siberia. I pursued these interests further with an MA at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL, upon the completion of which financial exhaustion induced an end to my studies. My original intention, upon appointment to a post in the DPIR, was to repay debts and hopefully earn some money for a year or so and then to return to study.

In the intervening period between then and now, the experience of working in the DPIR – and in the wider University – has changed considerably. At that time the DPIR was largely contained

within the Old Boy’s School on George Street and the student community was small enough for one to be able to know by sight all of the MPhils and at least a good proportion of the DPhils. Today the DPIR is housed within a purpose-built Social Sciences building, and a greater student intake and increased email communication mean that not every student is known to us by face. Hopefully the forthcoming reorganisation of the courses administration will enable us to re-establish that personal connection with the student community.

That I’m still here is a tribute, I think, to how on the whole the DPIR has been such a genial and hospitable environment to work in, though as with any workplace it has had its fair share of difficult moments. It would be tedious to justify that statement with examples but I would like to

acknowledge two individuals for their support over the years: Maria Moreno, who continues to provide wisdom and perspective; and Marga Lyall, who was a source of comradeship and sense of humour during our time in the DPIR and who has remained a friend following her retirement.

Andrew Melling is DPhil Programme Co-ordinator, DPIR.

Profile: Andrew Melling - continued from previous page

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20137

Research Bulletin BoardResearch Centre and Programme AnnouncementsCentre for International Studies (CIS) Director: Professor Kalypso Nicolaïdis and Professor Andrew Hurrellhttp://cis.politics.ox.ac.uk

• CIS Events

• CIS welcomes the following visitors:

• Mr Hannes Ebert, University of Hamburg (VDS)• Dr Martino Maggetti, University of Zurich (VRF)• Mr Dan HKung Awng Nbyen, Humanity Institute

(VRF)

Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC)Directors: Professor Jennifer Welsh, Mr Dapo Akande (Faculty of Law) and Dr David Rodinhttp://www.elac.ox.ac.uk

• ELAC Events

• ELAC looks forward to hosting several events and discussions in Trinity term, beginning with a special lecture by Yves Daccord, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on ‘The ‘Arab Spring’ and Future Humanitarian Challenges’ on 25 April at 2pm at Pembroke College. This lecture is co-hosted with the new Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations and the Oxford Humanitarian Group.

• Other events include a panel discussion on ‘The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) After Libya and Syria’ with Dr Simon Adams (Executive Director, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, New York) and Prof Alex Bellamy (Professor of International Security, Griffith University) on 15 May at 11am at Manor Road, and a seminar on cyber conflict with Dr Lucas Kello (Harvard) on 21 May at 11am (full details to be confirmed), co-hosted with the new Oxford Cybersecurity Centre. See http://www.elac.ox.ac.uk/events/ for the latest details.

• The Oxford Humanitarian Group (OHG) will also host further events in Manor Road this term on the theme of humanitarian ethics. On 1 May at 1pm Professor Greg Johnson (Pacific Lutheran University) will speak on ‘The Craft of Humanitarian Work: Reflection, Political Judgment and Strategic Intervention’, and on 14 May Dr Hugo Slim will chair a roundtable discussion on ‘’Humanitarianism’ and Armed Groups: Conceptual, Legal, Ethical Dilemmas and Opportunities in Displacement Contexts’, with speakers

to include ELAC Visiting Fellow Héloïse Ruaudel. For more information please visit: http://www.elac.ox.ac.uk/ohg/.

• ELAC issued a new Working Paper in February 2013,’War Crimes before the Norwegian Supreme Court: The Obligation to Prosecute and the Principle of Legality – An Incumbrance or Opportunity?’ (Simon O’Connor, Barrister, Legal adviser, Norwegian Red Cross and ELAC Research Associate). A further series of policy papers on R2P and preventative tools will be produced in the next few months and available from the ELAC website as outputs from the research project ‘The Prevention Toolbox: Systematising Policy Tools for the Prevention of Mass Atrocities’, funded by the Australian Civil-Military Centre.

• ELAC is pleased to announce that papers from the Third ELAC Annual Workshop in 2011 on ‘Law and Ethics in War’ will appear in a special symposium issue in The Leiden Journal of International Law in June 2013.

• Recent ELAC blogs and opinion pieces on topical and pressing developments are posted on the ELAC website, and have recently included articles on targeted killings and drones, intervention in Syria and Mali, nuclear testing by North Korea, and the contested Kenyan Presidential elections.Catch up on the latest at: http://www.elac.ox.ac.uk/news/.

• ELAC welcomes the following visitors:

• Professor Alison Duxbury, University of Melbourne (VRF)

• Ms Héloïse Ruaudel, Geneval Call (VRF)

Public Policy Unit (PPU)Director: Dr Stuart WhiteResearch Director: Professor Iain McLean http://ppu.politics.ox.ac.uk

• PPU Events

Centre for the Study of Social Justice (CSSJ)Director: Professor Simon Caneyhttp://social-justice.politics.ox.ac.uk

• CSSJ Events

• CSSJ welcomes the following visitor:

• Dr Steven Lecce, University of Manitoba (VRF)

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20138

Oxford-Sciences Po Research Group in the Social Sciences (OXPO)Director: Dr Florence Faucherhttp:// oxpo.politics.ox.ac.uk

• OXPO Events include three graduate conferences for which advance registration is required:

• ‘Histoire de l’Europe du XXe siècle. Continuités et ruptures’, 14-15 June 2013, Oxford;

• Theseus Doctoral Workshop 2013, ‘The EU and the Global Crisis: Challenges to EU Governance, Policy Responses and the Legitimacy Gap’, 20-21 June 2013. Sciences Po, Centre d’Etudes Europeennes, Paris (http://www.theseus-europe.net/);

• ’Sciences Po Graduate Political Theory Conference’, 20-21 June 2013. Keynote Speaker: Joseph Raz. Sciences Po, Paris.

Please see the website for full details of all OXPO events.

• OXPO welcomes the following visitors:

• Dr Christine Chivallon, Sciences Po (VRF)• Professor Antoine Roger, Sciences Po (VRF)• Mr Arthur Laurent, Sciences Po (VRF)

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ)Director: Dr David Levyhttp://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk

• RISJ Forthcoming events

• Past events:• The Economics of Broadcasting: 22 January 2013

A one day conference convened by the Reuters Institute and the BBC Trust examining the economic implications of current and future changes in broadcasting technology and consumer behaviour. Speakers included: - Jonathan Levy, US Federal Communications Commission; - Joshua Gans, University of Toronto; - Dieter Helm, University of Oxford; - Diane Coyle, BBC Trust; - Helen Weeds, University of Essex; - Andrew Graham, University of Oxford; - Mariana Mazzucato, Sussex University; - Colin Mayer, Saïd Business School; The event was chaired by Lord Patten and can be watched online here. A resulting publication is planned for Summer 2013.

• A 2020 vision for the BBC: 22 January 2013

Keynote lecture given by Gavyn Davies, Chairman of Fulcrum Asset Management and former Chairman, BBC Board of Governors, introduced by Lord Patten and chaired by Tim Gardam, Principal, St Anne’s College.

• Audiences, media environments and democratisation after the Arab spring, 28 February – 1 March This two-day conference explored the role of media in the early stages of democratisation; the implications of the Arab spring on local media landscapes and preferences for political information consumption; the links between media, society and local politics during democratic transitions of power; and the effectiveness of media as a tool for democratic socialisation amidst political pressures.

New Publications by RISJ• Transformations in Egyptian Journalism by Naomi Sakr

This study charts recent transformations in Egyptian journalism, exploring diverse approaches to converged media and the place of participatory cross-media networks in expanding and developing the country’s body of professional journalists. It analyses journalists’ initiatives for restructuring publicly-owned media and securing a safe and open environment in

which to work.

• RISJ welcomes the following visitors:

• Professor Bernd Blobaum, University of Munster (VRF)

• Ms Carolyn Fairbairn, Lloyds Bank/Vitec (VRF)• Dr Eva Nowak , Jade University (VRF)

Research Bulletin BoardResearch Centre and Programme Announcements, continued from page 7

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 20139

Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (MDCEE)Director: Professor Jan Zielonkahttp://mde.politics.ox.ac.uk

Events• MDCEE Forthcoming EventsMDCEE is planning our final major event for July 2013. Based around the title ‘Media and democracy: Central & Eastern Europe in a comparative context’, we are hoping to invite many of the scholars and practitioners we have worked with over the life of the project, as well as experts on areas of the world outside of Central Eastern Europe. Further details will be posted on our website soon.

Publications• East European Politics and Societies journal – Special CEE edition Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: The State of the Art. Introduction by Jan Zielonka (MDCEE Principle Investigator) and Jacques Rupnik (Director of Research at CERI [Centre for International Studies and Research at Sciences-po in Paris]). Includes an article by Dr Péter Bajomi-Lázár (MDCEE Senior Research Fellow), ‘The Party Colonisation of the Media: The Case of Hungary’.

• Media Transformations in the Post-Communist World: Eastern Europe’s Tortured Path to Change, edited by Peter Gross and Karol Jakubowicz, Lexington Books, 2013: a collection of analyses of Eastern European media by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field. Chapter 4 is by Dr Péter Bajomi-Lázár (MDCEE Senior Research Fellow) titled, ‘From Political Propaganda to Political Marketing: Changing Patterns of Political Communication in Central and Eastern Europe’.

Further details and access information on all MDCEE publications are available from the website at http://mde.politics.ox.ac.uk/.

Visiting FellowsMDCEE is delighted to welcome as new Visiting Fellows for Trinity term 2013:

• Dr Ruzha Smilova, Sofia University (VRF)

• Dr Daniel Smilova, Sofia University (VRF)

We are grateful to all our Visiting Fellows from last term, who contributed to a very busy and successful period for the project. Full details of all our previous visitors can be found on the project website.

Anglo-German ‘State of the State’ Fellowship ProgrammeDirector: Dr Radoslaw Zubek

Please see programme information at:http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/research-projects/anglo-german-project.html

Oxford Spring School in Quantitative Methods for Social ResearchDirector: Professor Geoffrey Evanshttp://springschool.politics.ox.ac.uk

The Spring School course for 2013, ‘Presenting Statistical Results Effectively’, ran from Monday 15 April to Friday 19 April 2013, taught by Robert Anderson and David Armstrong. Course materials will be online shortly.

A Spring School short course will be held on 1-2 May: ‘Multilevel Analysis for the Social Sciences’, taught by Professor Marco Steenbergen. Registration will close on 23 April 2013.

For more information please email springschool@politics.ox.ac.uk.

Associate ProgrammesGlobal Economic Governance Programme (GEG) Director: Professor Ngaire Woodshttp://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org

• GEG Events

Please also note the following:• From 20-21 May, the Global Leaders Fellowship colloquium will take place at Univ. This is by invitation only: please contact geg@univ.ox.ac.uk for more information.

• Two Blavatnik School of Government events which may be of interest to DPIR:

• 2 May, Dani Rodrik will speak about globalization (this event is officially co-hosted between BSG and QEH): Further information

• 9 May: Joseph Nye, American Presidents and Foreign Policy (a BSG event): Further information

Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship Programme (GLF) Director: Professor Ngaire Woodshttp://glf.politics.ox.ac.uk

Research Centre and Programme Announcements, continued from page 8

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 201310

REF Preparations – the Final StretchAs November 29, 2013, the final deadline for REF submissions to HEFCE draws nearer, REF preparations are entering their final phase. Building on the feedback we received in February on different aspects of our dry run return submission to the University, we are now working to finalize most of our return by June/July. This includes output selections, the impact case studies as well as the environment and impact templates. All of these parts of our submission require more work, and to get things right in these final months we will need your help.

We are currently contacting many of you to finalize your output selections. Several of you are already automatically updating us when a forthcoming paper is published. Please continue to do so. This is tremendously helpful and much appreciated.

The environment aspects of the submission, too, require further work. A priority this month is to ensure that we have a high return rate on the survey of Principal Investigators and Research Leaders (PIRLS). The results of the survey will be fed into the REF environment section as a means to independently verify the narrative that DPIR will construct about research support, and it will affect our REF evaluation as well our access to future research funding. We therefore need to make sure that we have a very high return rate and good evaluations. If you have held a grant or led a research programme during this REF period, please follow up on Jason Hussain’s e-mail earlier this month and complete it.

A lot of work still needs to be done on the environment template in particular on the sections that relate to research centres and the external links of the department. I have already contracted those of you who are involved with research centres and programmes and will probably need to get back to you to run sections of the template past you for checking. Several of you have been terrifically helpful in collating data on the links of the department with the wider scholarly community through visiting fellowship schemes, seminar series, conferences etc. I very much appreciate your help.

Mark and Liz have been working tirelessly on the impact aspect of our submission. Like the environment statement, the impact template requires detailed information and evidence, and again, we will need your help in seeking out the key facts and developing them into a compelling narrative. Much work has gone into the impact case study drafts since February. Some of the case studies are now in excellent shape, others need further work and we are very grateful to all case study writers for their work on this part of our submission. It is important that we develop around 10 good case studies because the size of our overall submission is linked to the number of impact case studies we can submit, and we do not want to be in the position of being unable to submit some of our staff because we lack a high quality case study.

Our aim now is to have a relatively final version of all aspects of our submission ready for the second and final internal review with the Pro-VC Research and Head of Division in June/July in order to ensure that we can benefit maximally from this last round of internal advice and comment. If we write to you about any aspect of the REF, please respond promptly so that we can work effectively to get the submission finalized. Many thanks!

Petra Schleiter (REF Co-ordinator)

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Research Funding deadlines

Research funding opportunities are listed on the website at: http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/funding-deadlines/funding-deadlines.html.

If you would like to apply for any of the schemes, please contact the Research Support Team ( http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/contact-us/research-support-team.html ) by the dates given in the ‘Contact RST by’ column.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWSWIRE, TRINITY TERM 201311

NEWS AND VIEWS

‘Politics in Spires’ is growingYou may be surprised to learn that Politics in Spires has now published around 400 articles by DPIR and POLIS academics, students and alumni covering a wide range of topics. You may also be interested to learn that between 1 February 2012 and 27 March 2013, 4,227 people visited the site more than 100 times. 3,004 of them visited more than 200 times and 11,773 people visited the site 9 or more times! We have had visitors from 183 different countries (from every continent except Antarctica). Politics in Spires is now one of the University’s collection of successful blog sites and as such represents a real opportunity for the Department’s students, staff and alumni to publish in real time, to reach and engage with a growing audience.

Themed seriesPolitics in Spires has begun to develop themed series, aiming to publish around 12-15 articles over a set period, allowing reader and author to respond to each other over the life of the series. Stuart White is currently curating a series titled ‘Democratic wealth: building a citizens’ economy’, in collaboration with openDemocracy’s British section OurKingdom.

The series explores the idea that a republican political economy may provide an alternative way to respect and protect the freedom of the citizen, uphold our standing

as civic equals, make effective our status as active participants in a popular sovereignty, and serve a genuinely common good.

Posts in the series can be read here.

Upcoming series (exact titles tbc.), funded by HEIF5+ divisional funds, will be published between May –July 2013:

• ‘China’, curated by Rana Mitter: The series will showcase the breadth and depth of China expertise and the potential scope of the new Oxford China Centre by setting out the challenges and new areas of research.

• ‘Politics in Schools’, for A level students studying Politics & Government. Blogs relating to the research in the DPIR will be generated as a direct response to discussions with A level students.

Politics in Spires has recently been awarded divisional HEIF funding for two years from August 2013 to curate and host ten themed series, each series comprising 12 articlesand two films, so five in each year.

These series will further develop the model of themed collections, working with new partners and developing new audiences. We envisage that each series will be published as an e-collection on completion.

Re-designed sitePolitics in Spires has recently launched a re-designed site which allows for a more modern look along with enhanced functionality for hosting podcasts and videos and the flexibility to accommodate several blog ‘special series’ simultaneously.

For further information please contact Kate Candy or Blake Ewing (Graduate Editor) at oxbridge.blog@gmail.com

Latest news from ‘Politics in Spires’

Photo: Marcello Vicidomini

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsinSpire

“My posts have been mentioned by the Financial Times and the Spectator, been engaged with by the Electoral Reform Society, and my post on the UK local elections led to a small consulting role with Channel 4.” (Chris Prosser, Deputy Graduate Editor, Politics in Spires, Student Newswire, Hilary Term 2013).

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Become a trip scholar for Oxford Alumnni Travellers

Interested in sharing your expertise with a group of intellectually curious travelers? The University Alumni Office, which organizes small group tours to sites of historical, cultural, and ecological interest for Oxford alumni, is looking for Oxford academics to lead travel groups. As a Trip Scholar, you’ll accompany a small group for the duration of a trip, giving regular informal lectures, answering questions during visits and meal–times and participating fully in the tour.

Recent trips include a cruise through the Black Sea exploring the history of the region from the birth of civilisation to the end of the Cold War; a tour of the history and culture of Burma; and a trip to Swaziland which included tours of

the fabled battle sites of the Anglo-Zulu war, viewing iconic rock art amongst the towering pinnacles of the Drakensberg Mountains, and exploring KwaZulu Natal, once the hunting preserve of Zulu kings and now superb for Big Five game viewing. Tours can be developed around a trip scholar from any discipline who would be interested in participating; suggestions for destinations and itineraries are welcome.

For more information, contact Natasha Stein, Travel Coordinator, University Alumni Office, natasha.stein@alumni.ox.ac.uk, 01865 611617.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Staff Teaching Exchange Opportunity with CEU, BudapestThe Department has an Erasmus Bilateral Agreement with Central European University (CEU), Budapest which will fund a member of Department to visit the Department of Political Science in CEU for a one week visit in 2013-14. If you are interested in participating, please contact Janice French for further information.

Nic Cheeseman visited CEU in summer 2011 and reported:

“I had a fantastic time at CEU Budapest. I gave two lectures which were well attended and the Q&As demonstrated an engaged and well informed audience, which helped me to refine my ideas. I also met with some graduate students to discuss their work and my work, and I am still in touch with some of the students whose interests overlapped with mine. Everyone was extremely friendly and professional. But I should stress that the level of teaching was not onerous at all - instead, I had plenty of time to think and write in Budapest’s beautiful coffee shops. If you are still not sold, it is worth pointing out that the institution is located at the heart of a fantastic city, with great food and the excellent Vaserely museum.”

For more information please see the CEU Budapest website.

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‘More Europe, less Europe, no Europe?’: DPIR Inaugural Alumni Event 1-2 March 2013

The DPIR welcomed over 70 alumni, students and friends to its inaugural alumni event on 1-2 March, with a welcome dinner at Balliol College and a conference titled ‘More Europe, less Europe, no Europe?’. This was an opportunity for members of the Department and DPIR alumni working in government administration and journalism to convey how academic analysis and dispassionate reflection can contribute to a better understanding of the EU and its various agendas. This was also the first occasion for many alumni to visit the Department’s ‘new home’ in the Manor Road building.

The organisers of the conference, David Hine and Kate Candy, are enormously grateful to the speakers for their excellent contributions: Stephen Whitefield, Stewart Wood (Keynote), David Rueda, David Soskice, Michael Arthur (former UK Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany), Maximilian Ruhenstroth-Bauer (recent trainee, Crisis Response Department, European External Action Service), Anne Deighton, Catherine E. de Vries, Jan Zielonka, Vernon Bogdanor, Theresa Kuhn and Claudia Schrag Sternberg.

A full report of the day’s proceedings can be read on the Politics in Spires blog. Please listen to the podcast and view speakers’ slides here.

Delegate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with strong encouragement for the Department to continue with these events. One delegate was reminded of the ‘extraordinary quality, depth and independence of thinking that takes place in Oxford’; another remarked on the amount of goodwill the event generated. Discussion is now underway for the next alumni event, with a view to scheduling a conference and dinner in Michaelmas term 2013.

NEWS AND VIEWS

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Noticeboard

Blog post by Philip Cowley on how academics should deal with the mediaPlease read Making an impact: how to deal with the media here.Philip Cowley is Professor of Parliamentary Government, Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of Nottingham

Please note that the Oxford University Press and Information Office also provides online media guidance for University members.

Find an expert serviceJournalists often contact the University Press Office or the DPIR looking for an Oxford academic to provide expert comment and/or background briefing on a story.

If you are interested in taking part in Find an Expert, please complete the application form on the Oxford University Media website.

PodcastingThe DPIR is keen to encourage podcasting of research seminars, workshops and conferences. Podcasts can be hosted on the DPIR website or on the University’s iTunesU site (or both).

Please contact Kate Candy or James Baldwin for further information.

Calls for papers Calls for papers are posted on Weblearn (Oxford sign-on required to access).

OxWip: Oxford Women in PoliticsOxWip has three main aims: to connect Oxford’s women students, faculty, and alumni engaged in the political and corporate spheres; to develop the professional and leadership skills necessary for a successful career; and to inspire the next generation of women students.Website Facebook page

Linked in Alumni groupThe DPIR has set up alumni networks, both general and subject-specific, which DPIR staff and students are very welcome to join. Details of all DPIR LinkedIn and Facebook groups can be found on the alumni website. Please note that the PPE alumni LinkedIn group is run by alumni for alumni.

Please contact Kate Candy for more information

News and Publications for the DPIR websitePlease submit news of your recent publications, research awards or media interviews/articles to news@politics.ox.ac.uk

Items for DPIR Noticeboard

If you have any items for this noticeboard for the Michaelmas term issue of DPIR Newswire, please email news@politics.ox.ac.uk

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DPIR Leaflet

DPIR publicity available online

DPIR Alumni Newswire December 2012

DPIR Alumni Newswire is circulated electronically to all DPIR alumni in December. If you have suggestions for content for the December 2013 issue, please contact Kate Candy.

Student Newswire Hilary term 2013

Student Newswire is circulated termly to all DPIR students in week 4 or 5. If you have suggestions for content for the Trinity term 2013 issue, please contact James Baldwin.

The DPIR has recently published a leaflet giving an overview of Department activity as well as Student Newswire and Alumni Newswire newsletters. Please click on the images to download. Please let Kate Candy know if you would like a hard copy: kate.candy@politics.ox.ac.uk

If you have announcements, notices or suggestions for editorial pieces for Michaelmas term’s issue of Newswire, please contact Kate Candy:kate.candy@politics.ox.ac.uk.

Copy deadline: Noughth week, Michaelmas term 2013

NEWS AND VIEWS