Dr Alexander Smith

Alex Smith

CONTACT   

Sociology
Room 2.30
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL 		Tel: +44 (0)24 7615 195
Fax: +44 (0)24 7652 349
Email: Alexander.Smith@warwick.ac.uk

 

RESEARCH PROFILE


Alex possesses sociological expertise on both American and British politics and is the author of 'Devolution and the Scottish Conservatives: banal activism, electioneering and the politics of irrelevance' (2011, Manchester: Manchester University Press). He conducts ethnographic research on politics, religion and science in both countries and has been funded by the British Academy, the British Council, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Leverhulme Trust and the New York-based Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. He was Principal Investigator on an ESRC seminar series called 'Rhetorics of Moderation: politics and pragmatics' (www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/events/rhetorics-of-moderation/index.aspx), which was an interdisciplinary collaboration between Huddersfield, Edinburgh and Nottingham Universities.

BACKGROUND


Alex Smith is a Senior Leverhulme Research Fellow in Sociology at Warwick University as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kansas University. He also holds an Honorary Lectureship in the Institute of Science and Society at Nottingham University. Alex is engaged in long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area as part of a four-year research project he is leading entitled ?Science, religion and the making of publics in the UK and US?. This project forms part of the major Leverhulme Trust-funded research programme ?Making Science Public: Challenges and Opportunities? (www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/research/projects/making-science-public/index.aspx), an interdisciplinary collaboration being led by Nottingham University with colleagues from Sheffield and Warwick Universities. Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Alex has held postdoctoral fellowships at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Keele Universities in the UK. He has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University and edits the ?New Ethnographies? book series for Manchester University Press (www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?series=40).

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS


  • Making Science Public - Challenges and Opportunities, Funded by: Leverhulme Trust, Project Start Date: 01/05/2012 Project End Date: 30/04/2016

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS


  • Smith, Alexander Thomas T. (2011) Devolution and the Scottish Conservatives: banal activism, electioneering and the politics of irrelevance , Manchester: Manchester University Press
  • Smith, A. (2010) 'Faith, science and the political imagination : moderate Republicans and the politics of embryonic stem cell research' Sociological Review, The 58 (4), 623 - 637 [article]

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Conferences

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You can Track My Proposals here 		My Profile last updated: 30/04/2013