Grant successes in the School of Politics and International Relations

We are delighted to share news of two recent grant successes in the School of Politics and International Relations.

Professor David Stevens - British Academy Pump-Priming Collaboration Award 

Countering the 'Epistocratic' Challenge to Democracy: Cultivating Political Knowledge through Citizenship Education

Alongside a co-investigator from the School of Education (University of Nottingham), Professor David Stevens will work with partners from across the UK and EU to put together a proposal for a three-year project aimed at developing components of high-school citizenship education classes that teach the value of democracy - in particular to challenge the so-called ‘knowledge deficit’ that some opponents of democratic decision making claim citizens suffer from, and who urge, on that basis, that decision-making should increasingly be placed in the hands of experts, rather than left to voters.

These efforts are intended to support participants in the project with future applications to the EU Horizon grant scheme

Dr Ben Holland - Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship 

Politics and the Holy Trinity: From Augustine to Agamben

Dr Ben Holland has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust fellowship to pursue an interdisciplinary project which will examine analogies between the powers of sovereigns and of God from late Antiquity, when 'modern' states began to crystallise, into the twenty-first century, when confidence in the identity and powers of both God and state faced acute challenges. According to Christian doctrine, God is three distinct but identical persons. Different theological interpretations of this mystery have helped to frame evolving conceptions of state sovereignty.

The year-long fellowship will culminate with a book, amounting to the first major study of the intellectual history of sovereignty to trace the trajectory of the concept as entangled with trinitarian speculation about and reflection on God.

Congratulations David and Ben!