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The PAIS Research Conference on 29 June, 2022 offers a rich and diverse programme, reflecting the research power of our Politics and International Studies department! The conference is taking place in person with 58 participants listed on the programme. Faculty, early career researchers and Ph.D. students are presenting together on thematic panels. Panel topics include Brexit discourses and their afterlives, international politics of migration, the future of democratic design, counter-terrorism, endogenous challenges to European convergence, race, gender and politics in the Middle East, and two round-tables on Russia’s invasion and the war in Ukraine, and on Global South-North partnerships. We are also celebrating published field-defining books and seeking to develop new ones in the spirit of the 91¸£Àû manuscript development initiative. A speed mentoring session continues our tradition to support early career researchers. At the end of the day, a tribute panel for our late colleague, Tim Sinclair, is organised as a hybrid event to give all staff and students the opportunity to join if they wish.

Logistically, for the first time this year the conference is co-organised with volunteers from our early career researchers and Ph.D. student community. 12 panel sessions are running in three tracks in parallel throughout the day. This year we have also invited interested MA and UG students to join, besides Ph.D. students and early career researchers, to get insights into our vibrant research culture! We are reconnecting in person to celebrate achievements, support colleagues in their ongoing work, and embark on new research journeys!

Please click here to see the full PAIS conference programme.

On 26th May, the Community Policy Forum hosted a discussion of the Prevent Strategy on their podcast. Amnesty's Ilyas Nadgee and 91¸£Àû Professor Charlotte Heath-Kelly explored the foundations of the Prevent Strategy, the dangers it poses to democracy and to communities, and recent leaks from the Shawcross review process.

The podcast can be found here:

A new article entitled "What Drives Counter-Extremism? The Extent of P/CVE Policies in the West and Their Structural Correlates" by Sadi Shanaah and Charlotte Heath-Kelly has been accepted for publication in Terrorism and Political Violence.

In the paper, the authors construct an index of the intensity of P/CVE policies deployment in 38 Western countries and investigate the correlation between the index and the threat of terrorism (measured as the number of past attacks/victims), the size of Muslim minorities (Muslim communities have been ‘securitised’ as potential threats in the post 9/11 period), and the neoliberal governance (drawing on Criminological literature that connects neoliberalism to anticipatory crime control).

The study finds a positive and significant correlation in the first two factors (terrorism threat and size of Muslim minority population), while a negative and significant correlation for the last factor (neoliberal governance). Among other things, the findings provide some empirical evidence for the claim that Muslim minorities in the West have been racialised and securitized, since their population size positively correlates with the deployment of P/CVE policies (but not to the number of terrorist attacks and victims).

The paper is a part of the research project "Neoliberal Terror: The Radicalisation of Social Policy in Europe" funded by the European Research Council and headed by Professor Charlotte Heath-Kelly. It can be accessed here: /fac/soc/pais/research/projects/internationalrelationssecurity/neoliberalterror/neoliberal-terror/publications/

The Department received some exceptionally positive news regarding our research standing following the release of the REF2021 results in May 2022. REF is the Research Excellence Framework, the exercise through which the success of our research is scrutinised across the separate measures of outputs, impact and environment. We have never returned a stronger quality profile on any of these measures than we have done for REF2021, including a perfect score of 100% 4* for research environment.

We have therefore been able to retain our proud record of being one of only three politics departments in the UK to have been in the top ten of every REF league table since the current star grade and GPA system was introduced over twenty years ago. We are also the only department currently to be in the top ten of each of the REF GPA league table, the Complete University Guide subject league table and the High Fliers' Guide to the Graduate Market league table.

The REF results therefore provide further evidence of the all-round strength to which PAIS can lay claim. Please do feel free to take a look at further information that we have posted about them: /fac/soc/pais/research/ref2021.

As cities across Africa start to lift pandemic restrictions, young people are hoping for a more equitable future. On Monday May 23rd, the 91¸£Àû, Open University and Slum Dwellers International (SDI) will launch the policy findings of an AHRC-funded project let by Prof Keith Hyams that captured the experiences of young people during the pandemic and their recommendations for a just and resilient urban future. Living in informal settlements across eight African cities, young people working as part of SDI’s youth federation led the recording of video diaries and interviews and participated in focus groups facilitated by SDI and UK researchers. The launch will be spear-headed by the publication of a blog hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in which young people reflect on IIED’s vision for a transformative urban recovery from COVID-19. There will also be launch media output and events across the eight cities.

The project website can be found at