I am Professor of European Studies in the School of Area Studies, Politics, History and Literary Studies. Together with Dr Angela Crack I lead the interdisciplinary Transnational Politics and Society research group within the Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR). I also contribute to the activities of the linked European Union funded Centre of Excellence for the Study of Transnational Europe (CESTE).

I am currently working on linked projects on the history, politics, and narratives of (European) regional integration. I have recently published a study on the European Parliament’s role in advocating the institutional reform of the European Communities between 1979 and 1989. I am also cooperating with the House of European History in Brussels, Belgium, on a project on contested or shared narratives of Europe’s twentieth-century history, and with the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg, Germany, on another project on narratives and counter-narratives of regional integration. I plan to start a new research line to focus on the role of inter-regional networks of societal actors in the (attempted) transfer of (European) regional integration to other world regions.

I am Professor of European Studies at the University of Portsmouth. I also teach a course at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. I have many European and global networks and institutional connections.

Alongside some contributions to teaching at undergraduate level, I mainly teach a module at postgraduate level entitled European International Relations: Facing New Challenges. The module engages with a variety of challenges for the European Union and other European countries like the United Kingdom, of an economic, political, and security/defence nature, in Europe's external relations with different actors and global regions from the US to Russia, West Africa and China/East Asia. This is an optional module for the following Masters level programmes: MA International Relations (Campus based) and MA International Relations (Distance Learning). I also supervise MA dissertations.

Moreover, I teach on the Humanities and Social Science MRes programme and I supervise several PhD students as first, second, or third supervisor, in the fields of European (transnational) history, and the history and politics of European integration, the EU, the European Parliament, and European political parties, among other topics. 

My research is located in the fields of global and transnational history and politics. I focus especially on the history and politics of Europe, the European Union, and of international organizations, the transnational relations of societal actors and narratives of the past and their uses in contemporary politics. Ongoing research includes:

• History and politics of Christian democracy
• History of European cooperation and integration
• History and politics of the European Parliament and its political groups
• Narratives and counter-narratives of (European) regional cooperation
• Processes of constitutionalizing the European Union
• Promotion of democracy and transfers of European regional integration to other world regions

I am happy to take calls and emails from media on my research, and I am aware of the need to respond to journalists in a timely manner. Enquiries should be directed to me by email in the first instance, at [email protected]