UCL - School of Public Policy / Political Science

03/09/2026

We are happy to announce the first evening in our Policy & Practice seminar series in the upcoming academic year 2026/27.

Themed 'Europe at a Crossroads: The EU in a Changing World Order', our expert panel will explore the following questions and consider what the future may hold for Europe in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical landscape.

What comes next for the European Union in terms of security, cooperation, and defence? How can the bloc balance greater strategic sovereignty with shifting geopolitical alliances? What’s next for UK-EU relations ten years after the Brexit vote? And how has the rise of far-right populism across member states influenced the development and direction of the Union?

We look forward to welcoming Anand Menon (KCL), Alexandra Hall Hall (former British diplomat), Jill Rutter (IfG), Uta Staiger (UCL) and chair Michal Ovádek (UCL).

The event is free. Please register here: https://bit.ly/4wJmp6Z

28/08/2026

To what extend can news media impact electoral behaviour?

For her dissertation, Abigail Lindon (BSc Philosophy, Politics and Economics) applied a difference-in-difference regression analysis to panel data collected by the British Election Study between 2019 and 2024. Her research argues that such impact is conditional within the context of a more diverse media landscape.

Read Abigail's contribution to the Student Experts Blog here: https://bit.ly/4zE0cKb

27/08/2026

Many congratulations to Dr Luis Schenoni! His book ‘Bringing War Back In. Victory, Defeat, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Latin America’, which Luis describes as a “piece of praise for historians”, has received the J. David Greenstone Award from the American Political Science Association, its fourth important award.

The formal announcement of the award will take place on 6 September 2026. Read more: https://tinyurl.com/y42frvvu

Dr Luis Schenoni has won the American Political Science Association's J. David Greenstone Award for his book ‘Bringing War Back In. Victory, Defeat, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Latin America'.

20/08/2026

Open justice is understood as the principle that courts should be accessible to all - but what does it mean in practice?

For her dissertation, Carolina Beresford (MA Human Rights) explored the lived experience of open justice in London’s magistrates’ courts. She takes the position that open justice can only be meaningfully realised when the lived experiences of public observers are taken into account. Her findings are based on 22 in-depth interviews with court watchers across London, complemented by insights from her own ethnographic court watching practice.

Read her article on SEBS: https://bit.ly/4ht6vK5

17/08/2026

Congratulations to Dr Marco Cappelluti!

Marco recently passed his viva after submitting his dissertation which examines how different forms of economic insecurity connect to far-right support. It is titled "Dimensions of Discontent: Essays on Economic Insecurity and Far-Right Support in Post-Financial Crisis Europe”.

Marco kindly took time to answer some questions about his thesis, what he enjoyed about the four years of working on it and the challenges he faced.

Read the short interview with Marco here: https://bit.ly/4x2wUn5

13/08/2026

How does Indian PM Narendra Modi use environmental discourse to legitimise the BJP's nationalist Hindutva ideology?

For her dissertation, Devi Sankhla (BSc Philosophy, Politics and Economics) conducted critical discourse analysis of political speeches by Modi and found that his environmental rhetoric follows the populist narrative template of time: the past, present and future are connected and recounted in ways to build the populist leader's support.

Read Devi's article on the Student Experts Blog: https://bit.ly/4wuUQyt

11/08/2026

We are happy to share that Julie Norman's article 'How Israeli conduct in the West Bank could derail Donald Trump’s latest peace plan for Gaza' was not only published in The Conversation UK but was also discussed by Alistair Campbell on Monday's episode (no. 560) of The Rest is Politics .

Listen and watch here: https://bit.ly/45Thoh9

10/08/2026

At the end of July, we shared SPP alumna Sosan Hashimi's contribution to our Student Experts Blog. Today, we are sharing that Sosan is a Face of UCL as part of the university's bicentenary - congratulations!

In this short portray, she shares her journey from being a lawyer in Kabul to becoming the founder of the charity Beyond Borders Empowerment in London and completing an MSc in International Public Policy at our Department.

Read about Sosan here: https://bit.ly/3TEhNBn

06/08/2026

How do media in authoritarian countries portray refugees?

For her dissertation, Anouska Panda (BSc Politics and International Relations) conducted a qualitative frame analysis of 41 articles published across four state-aligned media outlets in Belarus and Turkey.

She argues that despite notable differences in political context, both governments use refugee discourse in a surprisingly similar manner. Importantly, the study finds that refugee discourse is not really about refugees; rather, it conveys important signals about state identity, legitimacy and geopolitical status.

Read the article here: https://bit.ly/4fGiUcu

30/07/2026

Thursday are SEBS-days!
Hashimi (MSc International Public Policy) contributed to our Student Experts Blog the article 'The Paper Republic: Why Afghanistan’s Collapse Was Decades in the Making'.

The article is based on Sosan's disseration for which she conducted in-depth interviews with former Afghan government officials, military commanders, UN representatives, US foreign policy experts, and academics to critically examine the internal and external factors that contributed to the fall of the Republic of Afghanistan in 2021. Her research challenges the popular narrative of a ‘sudden collapse,’ arguing instead that Afghanistan’s fall was the product of two decades of internal decay combined with a handful of catastrophic external decisions; a distinction that matters for how the world responds to the next fragile state on the brink.

Read her article here:

The Paper Republic: Why Afghanistan’s Collapse Was Decades in the Making by Sosan Hashimi 30th July 2026 by marthe.lisson For her dissertation, Sosan Hashimi (MSc International Public Policy) conducted in-depth interviews with former Afghan government officials, military commanders, UN representat...