pathway: Political Science and International Studies

My research addresses the role of language and narrative used in the presentation of the Labour Party and Momentum (by those groups themselves, in the press, and on social media) in the ongoing battle for control over the Labour Party. I aim to examine the linguistic and narrative battles being fought by various groups in the British political landscape for control over the ways in which the Labour Party is represented and understood. Further, I seek to discover how the language and narratives employed by Labour can and do form part of a genuine counter-hegemonic ambition.

My PhD is looking at the communities of the alt-right online, particularly on the platforms of Reddit and Voat. Using a mixed-methods methodology, the networks and communication methods of the communities will be analysed to show how they operate during a Presidential Election. The construction of identity and community will also be considered.

The thesis aims to delineate and categorise different forms of political hacktivism by researching motivations behind cyber-attacks. It will then investigate whether a specific policy approach should accommodate political hacktivism at the national level. The primary methods used in this study will be qualitative.  Interviews and questionnaires with key stakeholders will be the main data source with anonymous online surveys acting as a secondary data source for harder to reach participants. A virtual ethnography of the hacktivists behaviours on forums will also be undertaken in order to research the motivations behind hacktivism.

My research will evaluate the impact of different international development projects which aim to empower women and girls. I will focus on the role of unpaid care work in the achievement of development outcomes, and on the consequences that empowerment projects may have for the provision of care. I will conduct a comparative ethnography that aims to reflect the knowledge and the systems of meaning in the lives of a community in Eastern Kenya. I hope to construct a colourful picture of the myriad factors that contribute to women’s self-perceived empowerment and autonomy, including social interaction, structural constraints, culture and relationships.

I am a doctoral researcher in Politics focusing on the regulation of the salaries and expenses of members of parliament in Westminster democracies. The project aims to provide analysis and information on expenses regulation both from a scholarly standpoint and to inform ongoing debates on policy. My broader interests are the comparative study of parliamentary institutions in the English-speaking world, with a particular focus on the interactions between institutional arrangements, resource use and forms of political behaviour.