Current Students

Selim Koru

Selim's PhD thesis explores the intersection of political ideas and public policy.

He graduated BA in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MA in international politics and economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advances International Studies (SAIS). He currently works  at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV,) as an analyst focusing on Turkish politics and foreign policy. He is also a writing fellow with the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).

Nora Leach

Nora holds a BA in Politics and International Relations (First Class), a MA in International Security and Terrorism (with Distinction) and a MA in Social Science Research (with Distinction) from the University of Nottingham. She is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Politics and International Relations.

Her doctoral project seeks to investigate the impact of European Union (EU) integration on the professionalisation of bureaucratic elites in post-communist Europe. Her research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Nora will act as a KnowledgeExchange Fellow on the CRISPI-led project 'Unholy Alliance? Testing the link between antisemitism and conspiracy theories to develop an enhanced education programme with the National Holocaust Centre'.

 Joe Place

Joe completed his BA in Philosophy and Politics in 2014 from the University of Liverpool before undertaking an MA in Political and Legal Theory: Toleration in the Politics department at the University of York which he graduated from in 2015. 

His masters dissertation was titled "What is Distinct about Left-Libertarianism" which distinguished various liberal schools of thought and drew out policy frameworks from left-libertarianism to show it's uniqueness. 

He is currently researching the concept of "Self-Authorship" and the relationship of that to meaningful work and free market capitalism. 

Benjamin Thomas

Benjamin's PhD thesis examines the process of ideological transformation by examining the normalisation of neo-liberalism in centre-right parties in the UK, the US and West Germany. To examine the process of ideological change he focuses on the conceptual changes that legitimised a previously insurgent neo-liberalism into part of the centre-right canon.

Prior to his PhD, Benjamin studied for an MA in Social Research at the University of York and a BSc in Government from the London School of Economics. He wrote dissertations on the drivers of party change in the post-war Conservative party, and the varieties of corporatism between Fascism and Christian Democracy respectively.