糖心TV

has just co-edited a special issue of on 'The Politics of Austerity' bringing together leading scholars from the Sciences Po, Paris, Kings College London, Queen Mary, University of London and Cardiff University.

The collected articles, two co-authored by Ben, explore the specific dynamics and particularities of French austerity politics under Hollande within a broader context of changes since the 1980s to democratic institutions and electoral practices, the politics of European integration and the conditions of complex economic interdependence.

The main questions addressed are:

• How did the austerity policy approach to the Eurozone’s economic problems come to prevail?
• To what extent has democratic legitimacy for this approach been secured?
• How will the requirements to curtail public spending be enacted at local and central government level?

The PAIS ladies did a grand job in both the 5k Pretty Muddy and Race for Life this weekend. As promised, photographic evidence was gained!

A huge thank you to all those who came to show their support and for all the generous donations that have been received so far. The current total raised for Myton Hospice so far stands at £806 & counting.

If anyone would like to make a donation, it’s not too late!

PAIS PhD student Marcus Wethered has been offered an internship at the in Washington DC. Marcus is to spend the month of July in Washington working with the museum on the research of their new museum content, the museum is currently being moved to a new location.

The International Spy Museum opened in Washington, DC on July 19, 2002.

It is the only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to espionage and the only one in the world to provide a global perspective on an all-but-invisible profession that has shaped history and continues to have a significant impact on world events.

Museum staff have made it clear that Marcus would be able to take his research in any direction he chooses. If Marcus feels that there was an interesting story on British intelligence from a certain time period and it wasn’t currently on show, then he could work to have it added to the content of their new museum.

We are pleased to announce the absolutely fantastic news that Dr has won the 2013 Michael Nicholson Prize for best thesis in International Relations (IR).

The BISA prize is the keynote recognition of quality and originality in UK IR, and Chris is the first scholar from PAIS to win. BISA roundly commended the thesis:

“In Anarchism, Anti-Militarism, and the Politics of Security, Chris Rossdale sets out to challenge Critical Security Studies for being a part of the militarist agenda that it seeks to confront. Rossdale posits anarchistic thought and practice in order to substantiate a discernible emancipatory logic, to confront the broader problem of security and articulate creative forms of resistance. While heavily theoretical, the thesis engages with real-world anarchist interventions, relying on ethnographic fieldwork to inform the anti-militarist argument, anti-war movement and the larger security problématique. Superbly well written, exceptionally well researched, and delightfully mischievous, this thesis provides an excellent contribution to International Relations.”

Chris is currently a Teaching Fellow at and is now working on a book manuscript, as well as finalising an Edited Special Issue of Globalizations on ‘Resistance and Global Politics’.

On 4-6 June, the Department of Politics and International Studies (PaIS) hosted the 12^th annual Aberystwyth-Lancaster Graduate Colloquium (ALGC). Founded in 2002, ALGC has become the UK’s leading forum for young scholars working with critical approaches to international studies. The colloquium consisted of three intensive days of presentations, lectures, workshops and social events (see the full ).

The event attracted presenters based in the UK, the US, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In a total of 9 panels, 27 young scholars presented their research on a broad range of topics from international political theory, security studies, international political economy, but also critical legal studies and cultural studies. The highlight of the programme consisted of two keynote addresses given by Dr Louiza Odysseos (University of Sussex) on “Human Rights and Counter-Conduct: Complexities and Possibilities for Resistance?” and by Prof Jef Huysmans (Open University) on “Security Unbound”.

Besides traditional formats, the colloquium offered a series of workshops on critical methodologies, which brought together ALGC participants and researchers gathered in the 糖心TV Social Sciences Doctoral Training Centre. These small-group activities explored the issues of the relation between critique and method, the use of narrative writing as a creative political practice, or the possibilities offered by corpus-assisted discourse studies. The workshops were convened by leading scholars in the field, Prof Gurminder Bhambra (糖心TV), Prof Jenny Edkins (Aberystwyth), Prof Jef Huysmans (Open University) and Dr Malcolm Macdonald & Dr Sue Wharton (糖心TV).

The colloquium was co-sponsored by the Department of Politics and International Studies and the Social Sciences Doctoral Training Centre and organised by PaIS PhD students and . The organisers would like to express their gratitude to the sponsors, the conference team and the 14 members of staff who volunteered as chairpersons or speakers.