Staff Profile

Dr Christopher Kirkland

Senior Lecturer in Politics

I undertook a BA (Politics and Modern History) at the university of Manchester, an MA (Politics Research Track) at the University of Nottingham and completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield (2015). I have since taught at the University of Liverpool, University of Winchester and University of Leicester before joining York St. John University in 2018 as a lecturer in politics.

School – School of Humanities
Email – c.kirkland@yorksj.ac.uk
Phone – 01904 876 305
Research - View my work in RaY

Teaching

I teach on the British Politics and Comparative Politics pathways of the politics degree programmes, and have taught on a number of modules including; Introduction to Comparative Politics, Finding a Role: The UK in the World, Parties and Politicians in the UK, The European Union, Introduction to Political Economy and The political Economy of Crises as well as supervising undergraduate and MA dissertations.

I have also contributed to the foundation year programme through offering lectures on Marxism and utopian ideologies.

I teach on the following modules:

IRL4002M Finding a Role: The UK in the World
IRL5001M International Political Economy
POL4002M UK Politics: Tradition and Change
POL4005M Comparative Politics
POL5001 Political Analysis: Theories and Methods
POL5006M Political Parties and Politicians in the UK
POL5009M The European Union
POL6010M The Political Economy of Crises
POL6012M Dissertation

Research

My research adopts a mixed methods approach, and my interests bridge the sub disciplines of political economy and political history. I am primarily interested in our understanding of crises and how these have impacted upon British politics. I have published monographs comparing crises in modern British Politics and exploring how crises have shaped the UK Labour party’s economic ideology. I have further published journal articles which explores the origins of the 2007 economic crisis and argue that the legislative impasses associated with Brexit are best conceptualized as constitutional weaknesses, rather than a constitutional crisis. I am also interested in UK elections and have published a monograph comparing the salience afforded to different types of elections in the UK as well as journal articles on the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections.

Publications

Books

Kirkland, C. (forthcoming) Britain in Crisis Bristol University Press: Bristol Expected publication 2024

Kirkland, C. 2022 Labour Party's Economic Ideology Since 1906: Developed Through Crises Bristol University Press

Kirkland, C. 2020 Classifying Elections in Britain Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke

Kirkland, C. 2017 The Political Economy of Britain in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan Basingstoke.

Journal Articles

Kirkland, C. and Deva, S. (forthcoming) Weakness, not Crisis: Brexit and the UK Constitution British Politics (accepted June 2022)

Kirkland, C. and Wood, M. 2017 Legitimacy and Legitimization in Low Turnout Ballots Government and Opposition 52 (3) 511-531

Kirkland, C. 2015 PCC Elections as a Failed Experiment: What Lessons can be Learned? The Political Quarterly 86 (3) 403-410

Kirkland, C. 2015 Thatcherism and the Origins of the 2007 Crisis, British Politics 10, 514–535

Conference presentations

2022 Examining the Relationship between Party Competition and Turnout: A Constituency Level Approach, PSA Annual Conference, York.

2020 What’s at Stake? Exploring the Rhetorical Styles of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage in context of Brexit, Network for The Interface of Classics and Politics Annual Conference, Liverpool.

2019 Political Parties Spending in Elections, PSA Annual Conference Nottingham.

2017 Regional Parties Approaches to Elections. ECPR General Conference, Oslo.

2017 Beyond First- and Second-Order? Political Parties approaches to Elections. EPSA Annual Conference, Milan.

2017 Classifying British Elections. Research Seminar Series, University of Liverpool.

2016 Beyond First- and Second-Order? A New Framework for Reconceptualising Elections. ECPR General Conference, Prague.

2015 ‘First Second or Third Order? Conceptualising the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections.’ Interdisciplinary PHD/Early Career Researchers Conference, Sheffield Hallam University.

2014 ‘Singing from the Same Hymn Sheet: New Labour and the coalition's responses to the Global Financial Crisis.’ CRESC Annual Conference, Manchester.

2014 Presented PhD based Research at the White Rose Politics Colloquium, Sheffield.

2012 ‘In Every Crisis There’s an Opportunity but Whose Opportunity?’ Interdisciplinary workshop, Sheffield.

Other

Kirkland, C. (2022) Boris Johnson wins ‘no-confidence’ Vote: But the Margin will make him Nervous The Conversation

Kirkland, C. (2020) Post-coronavirus economic thinking could go one of two ways in the UK. The Conversation.

Kirkland, C. (2019) ‘The Most important Election in a Generation’ – Just Like the Last Election (and the Next?) LSE Blog

Kirkland, C. (2019) How important is turnout in a UK election? The recent actions of the parties give you a good idea. The Conversation.

Kirkland, C. (2019) The UK’s 2019 General Election cannot be a re-run of the 2017 Campaign The Conversation

Kirkland, C. (2019) Jeremy Corbyn’s unity government plan: these are the numbers he would need to block no-deal Brexit. The Conversation.

Kirkland, C. (2019) Beyond Brexit, these are the issues Conservative leadership candidates should be debating. The Conversation.

Kirkland, C. (2019) Brexit Vote Defeat: Theresa May’s ‘plan B’ options explained The Conversation

Kirkland, C. (2018) Ministers found in contempt of parliament over legal advice – why it matters for Brexit. The Conversation.