A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

I was born and grew up in East Yorkshire, with the result that I am a lifelong supporter of Hull City and former player of Beverley Town Cricket Club. I studied French and Spanish at Bradford University (as well as at Santiago de Compostela and Toulouse) and developed an interest in Spanish politics thanks to the inspired teaching of the late Jose Amodia. After a year lecturing and researching at Bradford I joined the graduate programme at the European University Institute in Florence. My dissertation focused on the Spanish transition to democracy, and involved two years of research in Madrid at the Instituto Juan March and the Universidad Autonoma. I then moved back to the UK, lecturing first at the University of Durham, then at the University of Birmingham, before joining LSE in October 2004.

My research focused initially on party politics on Southern Europe, and then moved on to more comparative work relating party politics to political economy and economic policy, corruption, and decentralization. I recently completed a major ESRC-funded project on 'Devolution and Party Adaptation', and I am currently working on a book provisionally entitled 'The New Political Economy of European Political Parties' with Mark Blyth and Riccardo Pelizzo, and also researching labour market and welfare reform in contemporary Europe as part of the European RECWOWE programme.

I have taught courses in a range of areas including comparative European politics, European integration, British politics, comparative political economy, and democratization. At LSE I am currently teaching British politics and co-ordinating an MSc programme on 'Politics and Markets' with David Woodruff.

My research has taken me on frequent trips to Italy, Spain and the United States. I've held visiting positions at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, the University of Trento, the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Northwestern University in Chicago, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the University of Bologna and the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Centre in Italy, where I hold the position of Associate Fellow.

I have published one book, Party Formation and Democratic Transition in Spain (Macmillan 1999, also translated into Spanish), and a number of articles and book chapters. My work has appeared in a range of journals including the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, European Journal of Political Research, Governance, Party Politics, Political Studies, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, the Review of International Political Economy, and West European Politics.

Anyone interested in more detail can download my CV here.