Research and teaching
Research
First, and most importantly, we carry out research. The unique concentration of specialists within EPRU means that a rich body of work is constantly being developed. This ranges from ambitious collaborative projects supported by funding from national Research Councils to short term projects carried out independently by individuals. At present, core EPRU members are involved in a number of major research projects:
- Annesley: Engendering the Adult Worker Model Welfare State: The UK (funded by the ESRC)
- Gorlizki: Networks and Hierarchies in the Soviet Provinces, 1945-1970 (funded by the ESRC)
- Humphreys: Globalization, Regulatory Competition and Audiovisual Regulation in Five Countries (funded by the ESRC).
- Papadimitriou: The Enemy that Never Was: the Muslim Minority of Thrace during the Axis occupation and the Greek Civil War 1941-49” (funded by the AHRC).
In addition, core members of EPRU develop their research activities in these areas:
- Annesley: Women and new Labour; Europeanisation, Lisbon and Social Europe.
- Gorlizki: Soviet ruling elites, post-war Russian history.
- Humphreys: Media policy, policy transfer in the EU (regulation of utilities).
- Lovecy: Human rights and the Council of Europe, French politics, gender politics.
- Papadimitriou: EU enlargement, the EU's external relations, Greek political economy.
- Shields: Comparative neoliberalizations: state rescaling, and the politics of global competitiveness; critical political economy.
- Sutherland: Comparative nationalism and regionalism in the European Union and South-East Asia; migration and citizenship.
Core members of EPRU are currently (co-) supervising 12 PhD students
Teaching
Politics is a major national centre of European Studies teaching for both graduate and undergraduate courses. Government is a compulsory subject on all years of the University's European Studies and Modern Languages Degree.
Politics runs its own Masters Degree in European Politics and Policy (Standard Route and Research Route). And within the large Graduate School at Manchester EPRU members supervise a large number of students working on theses related to Europe. Many of our graduate students are part-timers with responsible positions in the public and private sectors.
Advice and Consultancy
We strongly endeavour to link our research activities to the work of practitioners and other societal groups. Core members of EPRU regularly act as consultants to commercial organisations and to the public sector.