Post-graduate research students are a central and highly valued part of our scholastic community in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Our PGRs play a key role in contributing to our research community and many act as staff members when undertaking teaching. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities to contribute to the wider life of the department through feeding views into our staff-student and equality diversity and inclusion committees, participating in research seminars and where appropriate taking on teaching opportunities.
The PGR Forum meets four times per year. All PGR students are invited to attend to share news, highlight upcoming events they are planning or express any concerns they have. The PGR Director will chair the meeting and the PGR Reps can pass on any notable items to Faculty when they attend the Faculty PGR Student Forum on behalf of the department. Details of dates and times will be emailed directly to you. Your PGR Representatives are currently Lauren Martin lmartin2@sheffield.ac.uk and Chidubem Mogbolu cimogbolu1@sheffield.ac.uk.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC)
The Department takes equality diversity and inclusion very seriously. We see our graduate students as key members of our scholastic and professional community. We have a PGR student who sits on the EDI committee (or two to rotate if attending meetings is challenging). Joining the committee will allow you to be involved in discussing departmental EDI strategy and raising EDI-related PGR issues. There are clear guidelines on confidentiality and on ensuring that PGRs are not asked to undertake work that distracts from their studies. For further information please contact the One University EDI contact in the department, Dr David Duriesmith d.duriesmith@sheffield.ac.uk. Your EDI PGR Representatives are Bryony Vince bjvince1@sheffield.ac.uk and Nathaniel Sablan nsablan1@sheffield.ac.uk
Students are encouraged to create their own webpage within the Department’s PhD Student Profiles webpage.
Please complete the staff profile template sheet here.
Completed pages should be sent to the Department’s Marketing Assistant, Christina Sommerville (c.e.sommerville@sheffield.ac.uk)
The Department also holds research seminars at which invited outside speakers present research papers. These are a valuable opportunity for research students to be exposed to both issues and research techniques which enhance their general training, expose them to a range of research methodologies and bodies of substantive knowledge, and may have implications for their research projects. These also provide an additional academic context in which research students encounter members of staff and other research students working outside their own particular area, and participate in the broader active research environment of the Department. Departmental seminars are held regularly and are central to the Department’s research culture. Research students are expected to attend these seminars. They are advertised via posters and Google calendar. Research students are welcome to make suggestions for visiting speakers and are invited to make any such suggestions to the Director of Postgraduate Research Studies.
These are convened on an ad hoc basis, responding to recent major issues in politics. Teach-ins will involve invited speakers to give fresh short presentations for discussion.
The Department currently has Research Groups:
Political Theory (Convenors: Dr Luke Ulas; Professor Alasdair Cochrane)
Political Economy (Convenor: Dr Liam Stanley)
Governance and Public Policy (Convenors Dr James Weinberg; Dr. Joe Ward)
International Politics (Convenor: TBC)
Environmental Politics (Convenor: Professor Rosaleen Duffy)
Each draws on research expertise of members of the Department and of other cognate departments in the University. Postgraduate research students are encouraged to participate in the activities of these centres. Further details of these Centres are available on the Politics Department website.
The Department also hosts the Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics.