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Michael Saward

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Professor of Politics and International Studies

Email:
Room: D1.10

For Term 2, 2023-24, my advice and feedback hours will be:

Mondays 2.30-3.30 online via Microsoft Teams

Fridays 2.30-3.30 in-person (room D1.10)

You can find the advice and feedback booking form above.

I joined PaIS as Professor of Politics and International Studies in October 2012, and was Director of the Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Centre from 2013 to 2016. I was a professor at the Open University for twelve years, twice serving as Head of Department and closely involved in producing new distance learning OU Politics courses. Prior to the OU I taught at Royal Holloway, University of London. My key area of research is contemporary democratic theory. In recent years I have focused on the theory of representation. My book The Representative Claim - awarded the George H. Hallett prize by the American Political Science Association in 2020 - was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Making Representations (ECPR Press and Rowman and Littlefield International) was published in 2020. My work on the EU-funded ENACT project, which engaged a range of political leaders, activists and researchers across Europe, supported the publication of the jointly edited (with Engin Isin) book Enacting European Citizenship by Cambridge University Press in 2013. A Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust has supported my work on Democratic Design (2016-19); my book Democratic Design was published by Oxford University Press in 2021 and awarded the W.J.M Mackenzie Book Prize by the UK Political Studies Association in 2023. In recent years I have been a visiting scholar at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), and Australian National University. Along with Shirin Rai (SOAS) and Warwick Theatre and Performance colleagues Silvija Jestrovic and Milija Gluhovic, I am co-editor of the new Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance (2021), an interdisciplinary volume with contributing authors from 15 different countries. I am currently working on a range of issues, including performance and democratic representation and the role of political ideas in practical political life.

My Publications

Democratic Design book cover
Making Representations book cover
Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance book cover
The Representative Claim book cover