Strategic Silence: The West and Turkey’s Authoritarian Turn
While local politicians across Europe have spoken out against the imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and the broader trend of democratic backsliding in Turkey, national leaders have offered muted reactions, preferring to maintain ongoing cooperation with the regime. More than 40 days have passed since the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu. Following his historic victory in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election, İmamoğlu, a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has become one of the strongest challengers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political dominance. His victory not only marked the end of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development […]
Encouraging report on recognition and reward for the growing numbers of staff on the teaching-focused career track
The British Academy report on Politics and International Relations (PIR) in higher education notes a striking growth in numbers of academic staff on ‘teaching-only’ contracts within the discipline (British Academy, 2025). Numbers have more than doubled in recent years and now represent 21% of all academic staff in PIR. Historically, ‘teaching-only’ contracts have been considered by some as somehow less prestigious than research or teaching– and–research contracts. This is now changing. It is becoming clear that not only are staff numbers growing, but these staff are also playing and increasingly important role in developing the student experience and […]
Black and Afro-descendant women in Latin America and the Caribbean have been a source of strength for me
Black and Afro-descendant women in Latin America and the Caribbean have been a source of strength for me. Their socio- political mobilisation has inspired my personal, professional and academic paths. In fact, it was a course aimed at Afro-Ecuadorian and Afro-descendant women in Ecuador that was the final push I needed to embark on my doctoral journey. The course focused on capacity-building and leadership for Afro-descendant women on matters concerning Afro-feminisms, Afro-epistemologies, and new ways of thinking about how we wanted our communities to exist. The course’s opening ceremony took place in a lecture hall at the Central University […]
From Red to Blue? Why some British Indians are turning away from Labour.
The Labour Party have been the natural party of choice for Britain’s ethnic minority groups because of positive racial policies. However, following the 2010 General Election, researched showed this was no longer the case for British Indian voters. I’m a third generation British Indian and 10 years ago, I was revising for my A Level exam in Government and Politics; the textbook said, All ethnic minorities vote for the Labour Party. I disagreed. My research is on British Indian voting and why there is an increase in votes for the Conservatives. I have conducted 48 semi-structured interviews with MPs, […]
Supporting Mid-Career Academics: Reflecting on Our First Mentoring Workshop
In January this year, the PSA Women and Politics Specialist Group hosted its first-ever Mid-Career Mentoring (MCR) workshop funded by the PSA. We welcomed ten brilliant academics from across the UK and Europe, each at a pivotal stage of their careers. All had applied to join the scheme, which specifically supports colleagues who’ve moved beyond their first promotion but aren’t yet professors. Many hold research contracts and juggle a complex array of responsibilities. So why mid-career? It is a key point in what is often described as the leaky pipeline to seniority in academia, where we continue to see stark gendered […]
Who is taking A-level Government and Politics? A 15-Year Snapshot
Our friends at the British Academy have just made available a new dashboard tool that offers insight into demographic and socio-economic characteristics of post-16 students in England studying Level 3 qualifications (excluding apprenticeships) over the fifteen years preceding 2021/22 as a whole and for each subject including A Level Government and Politics. This builds on the information provided on subject choice in 2024 A level Government & Politics: in good health but ripe for growth | The Political Studies Association (PSA) and was prepared in collaboration with the National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER). The dashboard allows […]
Diverse Voices 2024: Reflections from our first workshop
The first of the Diverse Voices workshop series for the 2024 cohort took place in November 2024. The half-day workshop was held at the PSA Camden office and streamed live to accommodate participants unable to attend physically. The workshop was tremendously useful and as one scholar describes it: The workshop was not just a learning experience but a journey of personal growth. The diverse experiences shared by my peers helped me understand that challenges are an integral part of our academic journey. However, with focused determination, these challenges can be overcome. The inspiration and motivation I received from […]
Takeaways from the 2025 German election
Germany has voted, and the results call for some serious soul searching among the country’s mainstream political parties. For the first time in the country’s post-World War II history, a far-right party has become the second largest party in a general election. The Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution suspects in part to be right-wing extremist and thus a potential threat to the country’s liberal-democratic order, more than doubled its 2021 result. Coming first in the Eastern German states, the AfD won nearly 21 percent nationwide and finished second, only beaten […]
LGBTQ+ History Month
LGBTQ+ history is often rendered invisible as ideals of (cis)gender and (heteronormative)sexuality dominate. LGBT+ History Month offers the opportunity to make sense of our queer past and to reflect on the present and future of LGBTQ+ struggles.
Empowering Development Organisations in the Global South through South- South Development Cooperation: Insights from Brazil, India, and South Africa
