HOPELESSLY RETRO - 40 YEARS OF POLITICAL ANALYSIS

A video reflecting on the career of Professor Wyn Grant, PAIS

After 40 years at the University, Professor Wyn grant is retiring from the Department of Politics and International Studies. The video below showcases Professor Grant's final lecture in whch he discusses the changes that have taken place in British politics over the past 40 years. He also explains how the processes and techniques involved in teaching Political Science have developed over the course of his career.

Professor Wyn Grant joined the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at Warwick in 1971 and was Chair of department from 1990 to 1997, continuing as a senior tutor. Professor Grant is a member of, and teaches at, the Population and Diseases Research Group in the Department of Life Sciences and at the Warwick Crops Centre, Wellesbourne where his research has included works on comparative public policy, on biological alternatives to chemical pesticides and the governance of livestock diseases.

In his book Pressure Groups, Politics and Democracy in Britain (1989) he conceived the distinction between insider and outsider pressure groups. His further publications include; Business and Politics in Britain (2nd edition, 1993); The Common Agricultural Policy (1997); Pressure Groups and British Politics (2000); Economic Policy in Britain (2002); Agriculture in the New Global Economy (with William Coleman and Timothy Josling, 2005).

Prof Grant is a graduate of the universities of Leicester, Strathclyde and Exeter and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Society, Cologne, Germany. He was Chair (2002–2005) and president (2005–2008) of the British Political Studies Association (PSA). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Society, Cologne, Germany.

He is Vice-President of the International Political Science Association for Europe and Africa, and specialist on comparative public policy including sports policy, especially in the economics and business of sport. In 2010 he was presented with the Diamond Jubilee Lifetime Achievement award of the Political Studies Association of the UK.

This year he retires from Warwick after 40 years within PAIS, giving his Valedictory Lecture during the Festival of Social Sciences at Warwick in May 2011.

In this final lecture Professor Grant discusses how the political arena has changed in Britain and across the world, how teaching political science has changed during his 40 years experience and his memories of his time here at Warwick.