Dr Pier-Luc Dupont Picard

• Identity Politics: Examining the Inclusion of Religio-political Identity into Nigeria’s modern democracy (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof Krijn Peters

• Migrant Workers in Thailand: A Nexus of Human Security and Human Rights (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof Alan Collins

• HUP309 The Philosophy and Politics of Identity

  This module examines how identity operates at an individual, collective and institutional level. In so doing, it explores key concepts concerning personal and group identity, such as authenticity, oppression and recognition. Among other things, students will consider the meaning and value of having identities, how these identities are constructed and challenged, and how they can be accommodated within modern, diverse societies. Students will engage with theoretical debates about self-respect, essentialism and multiculturalism, and their implications for contemporary politics.

• PO-131A Introduction to Politics

  This module introduces students to the core concepts, and intellectual and practical skills essential to the successful study of Politics and offers an opportunity to develop them by wrestling with big Politics questions. It primarily aims to give a grounding in the topics at the core of Politics, and equips students to navigate successfully within the field. The module also aims to improve students¿ practical academic skills, including how to find and use sources, read texts critically, and write to scholarly academic standards.

• PO-245 The History of Political Thought

  This module examines the history of political thought in the West, as it has developed through key political thinkers. In so doing, it traces the development of core political concepts and values, such as democracy, freedom and rights. The course thus has two main aims. First, to provide students with an understanding of pivotal political thinkers and their works. Second, to equip students with an appreciation of how the history of political thought has shaped the current political landscape. The module is designed to enrich the topics covered in the first-year module Political Philosophy by placing them within a historical context.

• PO-246 The History of Political Thought

  This module examines the history of political thought in the West, as it has developed through key political thinkers. In so doing, it traces the development of core political concepts and values, such as democracy, freedom and rights. The module thus has two main aims. First, to provide students with an understanding of pivotal political thinkers and their works. Second, to equip students with an appreciation of how the history of political thought has shaped the current political landscape. The module is designed to enrich the topics covered in the first-year module Political Philosophy by placing them within a historical context.

• PO-3121 Parliamentary Studies

  Parliamentary Studies is delivered in partnership between the Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations and Parliamentary officials from the Westminster Parliament Education Outreach Team. Swansea is one of only twenty-four universities in the UK sanctioned to provide this module, with the support of the Clerks of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This module aims to equip students with academic and practical knowledge and skills around the UK Parliament, including detailed insights of the workings of Parliament and its relations with other parliamentary institutions. While Parliament remains a key body in the development and safeguarding of democracy in the UK, its functioning has also been subject to debate. It was at the heart of debates over the nature of the relationship between the executive and the legislature, the role of political parties, the reform of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and the theory and practice of parliamentary behavior, representation, and accountability. The UK¿s previous membership of the European Union has also stimulated debates over sovereignty of a pre- and post-Brexit UK. Similarly, devolution has stimulated discussions over Parliament¿s role in making laws across a multi-level polity. This module seeks to engage with these and other issues. Teaching includes tuition both by lecturers in the department and parliamentary staff as well as a field trip to the UK Parliament. The module emphasizes significant and active learning through a combination of traditional lecture-elements with seminar- and small-group activities and exchanges with practitioners like parliamentary clerks.

Pier-Luc has organised a number of stakeholder events involving local, national and international activists, trade union representatives, policymakers and legal practitioners. He has provided snapshots of his research findings in the context of parliamentary calls for evidence on human rights at work (2023) and young people’s experience of the built environment (2024); the Election 24 Hub created by the Academy of Social Sciences ahead of the 2024 general election; small group meetings with Baroness Thangam Debonnaire (then MP) and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants; a workshop with refugee charity ACH; and interviews with the Horse Race Politics podcast and Wired magazine. He also debated religious diversity and education with the Church of England Chief Education Officer at the 2023 Schools and Academies Show in London.

• Urban space perceptions and everyday youth intergroup contact

  June 2025

  International Contact Research Network Summit, University of Oxford

• Secularism as equality of religious and non-religious beliefs in British education politics

  May 2025

  Joint Sessions of the European Consortium for Political Research, Charles University, Prague

• From the national curriculum to school inspections? Rethinking the decolonisation of history learning in England

  April 2024

  Conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism: Nationalism and Memory, University of Edinburgh

• The anti-racist critique of multiculturalism after neoliberalism

  March 2024

  74th Annual International Conference of the Political Studies Association. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

• Exploring ethno-religious segregation and mixing in urban spaces through participatory photography

  December 2023

  Social Sciences Community Seminar Series, Swansea University.

• How space shapes adolescents’ contact with ethno-cultural ‘others’

  September 2023

  Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association, Aston University, Birmingham.

• An intergroup model of place identity and contact

  August 2023

  17th International Symposium of the International Network for Peace Psychology, University of Pécs (Hungary).

• Conceptions of (in)equality in minority religious organisations’ political claims

  July 2023

  Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association Study Group on the Sociology of Religion. University of Bristol.

• Understanding the facilitators and inhibitors of youth intergroup contact in divided societies

  June 2023

  Small Group Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology. Queen’s University Belfast

• Diversity politics in the UK: Combining multiculturalism, interculturalism and cosmopolitanism

  April 2023

  32nd Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism. University of Loughborough.