Administrative Duties

I am co-director of the Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics. Within the Centre we are developing research projects on topic such as financialisation, cultural theory, cultural policy and political communication.

I was responsible for the oversight of examinations and assessment in the Department from 2004-2011 and organizer and chair of the Departmental research seminar series from 2006-2011.  

Biography

I studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University and then at The Queen’s University of Belfast where I wrote my doctoral thesis ‘Political Ideology and the Mythic Discourse of Nationalism’. I lectured at Queen’s for several years before taking up a post at Swansea in 2000.

Administrative Duties

I am co-director of the Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics. Within the Centre we are developing research projects on topic such as financialisation, cultural theory, cultural policy and political communication.

I was responsible for the oversight of examinations and assessment in the Department from 2004-2011 and organizer and chair of the Departmental research seminar series from 2006-2011.  

Current Research

My research combines political/cultural theory with political analysis. I have written quite a lot about the ideology that underpinned new Labour and especially about the relationship between social policy (you can see me talking about new Labour and asset-based welfare at a conference in Montreal in 2005 here) and financialisation (you can hear me talking about the financial crisis at a conference in Warwick in 2008, here: )

I am especially interested in  political rhetoric – the ways in which political actors attempt to persuade others to agree with them. I am currently running a research project with Judi Atkins funded by the Leverhulme Trust. We are archiving speeches and examining the history and development of political rhetoric in Britain. You can find out more on the project website (http://ww.britishpoliticalspeech.org). You can see me giving a public lecture in Finland, about rhetoric and ideologies here.

A third strand of my research is democratic political theory (especially the connection between theories of rhetoric and democracy) and I have written a number of essays on agonistic conceptions of politics.  

I also write political commentary for The Guardian and Open Democracy.

Selected Recent Publications

• Finlayson, A. (2009) (eds)  Democracy and Pluralism: The Political Thought  of William E. Connolly, Routledge.
• Finlayson, A. (2009) 'Financialisation, Financial Literacy and Asset-Based Welfare', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11(3), 400-421.
• Finlayson, A. & Martin, J. (2008)‘ “It Ain’t What You Say…”: British Political Studies and the Analysis of Speech and Rhetoric’, British Politics, 3, 2008, pp. 445-464. 
• Finlayson, A. (2007) ‘From Beliefs to Arguments: Interpretive Methodology and Rhetorical Political Analysis’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 9, 4, 2007, pp. 545-563.
• Finlayson, A. (2008) ‘Characterising New Labour: The Case of the Child Trust Fund’, Public Administration, Vol. 86, 1, 2008.
• Finlayson, A. (2003) Making Sense of New Labour  (Lawrence & Wishart).
• Finlayson, A. (2003) Contemporary Political Theory: A Reader and Guide (Edinburgh University Press).

Selected research awards, fellowships, & prizes

• £1750: Support for a conference on the work of William Connolly, British Academy, 2007. 
• £105000.00: ‘How the Leader Speaks: British Political Rhetoric and Argumentation Since 1895’, Leverhulme Trust, 2008-2011. 
• £9000.00: ‘Cataloguing and Preserving the Raymond Williams Papers’,  Amiel-Melburn Trust, 2009-10. 
• Visiting adjunct professor in the Department of Speech Communication, Southern Illinois University in 2003. 
• Course convenor on rhetoric at the Centre for Theoretical Studies, in Spring of 2008. 
• Guest lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, POLITU Doctoral Course: Rhetoric of Governments, Parliaments and Movements’
• Visiting fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Warwick in Spring of 2011. 

Professional memberships

• Member, Political Studies Association
• Treasurer, Rhetoric and Politics Specialist Group 
• Trustee, Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust 
• Member, British Speechwriters Association

PhD Supervision

• I can supervise postgraduate research into topics such as Democratic Theory, Critical Theory, rhetoric and political communication. Recent and Current students include: 
  • Philip Bounds: “British Marxist Cultural Theory 1926-1936”  
  • Sofia Chatzisavvidou: “Theorising Democratic Ethos”
  • Nathan Roger: “Image warfare in the war on terror: Image munitions and the continuation of war and politics by other means”
  • Patricia Thomas: “Propaganda on Film: Shadows from the past, projections for the future?”