School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

I am Senior Lecturer in Politics, with a particular research focus on parliamentary politics in the UK and comparatively. Specifically, I'm interested in:

• How politicians interpret and enact their role, especially with respect to scrutinising government, and how this affects democratic politics;
• How politicians and parliamentary actors gather, analyse and use different types of knowledge, and how this affects wider democratic governance and decision-making; and,
• How we can effectively study political phenomena, particularly engaging with debates on interpretive political science.

Between 2024 and 2029, I am Principal Investigator for a large ERC Starting Grant (funded via the UKRI Horizon Guarantee Scheme), called Studying Parliaments and the Role of Knowledge or SPARK. Alongside my research team, we are investigating how parliaments across Europe gather, analyse and use different types of knowledge.

Between 2012 and 2016, I completed a four-year ESRC project entitled Interpreting Parliamentary Scrutiny that explores a lot of these issues, and focused predominantly on the UK Parliament. In 2020, this project culminated in my book, Dramas at Westminster, which won Book of the Year by the Political Studies Association in 2021. Find out more here.

My research interests are reflected in my passion for teaching and education, which focus around British politics. I previously contributed to, and also convened, our introductory course on British politics (Introduction to British Politics). I have contributed towards, and since 2021-22 convened an advanced course comparing the UK and Scottish parliaments (Parliamentary Studies). The latter course was awarded the Best Course Award by Edinburgh University Students' Association in 2022; both courses were nominated for this award in 2021 and 2022.

Selected publications

For enquiries about recent conference papers and current work-in-progress, please contact me directly. An up-to-date list of all my publications is available via Google Scholar or my website.

Books

(2020) Dramas at Westminster: Select Committees and the Quest for Accountability. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

This book was awarded the 2021 WJM Mackenzie Prize for the Best Book Published in Political Science.

The book was reviewed for LSE Review of Books by Dr Ben Worthy (Birkbeck), for Representation by Dr Tom Caygill (Newcastle) and for Parliaments, Estates and Representation by Liam Laurence Smyth (House of Commons).

Articles

(In press) 'Parliamentary Traditions in the UK: Exploring beliefs, practices and dilemmas to explain change and continuity in the House of Commons'. Journal of Legislative Studies.

(2022) 'Explaining Change in Legislatures: Dilemmas of managerial reform in the UK House of Commons'. Political Studies. 70(1): 239-54. Co-author: A. Meakin. Open Access.

(2021) 'The webs of belief around 'evidence' in legislatures: The case of select committees in the UK House of Commons'. Public Administration. 99(1): 40-54. Open Access.

(2020) 'Opening up evidence-based policy: exploring citizen and service user engagement', Evidence & Policy 16(2): 199-208. Co-authors: E. Stewart, J. Smith-Merry and J. Bandola-Gill.

This article is the editorial of a fully open access guest-edited special issue of Evidence & Policy by E. Stewart, J. Smith-Merry and M. Geddes.

(2020) 'Governing under Pressure? The Mental Wellbeing of Politicians', Parliamentary Affairs 73(2): 253-73. Co-authors: J. Weinberg, A. Weinberg, M. Flinders and R. Kwiatkowski.

(2019) 'Performing Scrutiny along the Committee Corridor of the UK House of Commons', Parliamentary Affairs 72(4): 821-40.

(2019) 'The Explanatory Potential of 'Dilemmas': Bridging practices and power to understand political change in interpretive political science', Political Studies Review 17(3): 239-54.

(2018) 'Committee Hearings of the UK Parliament: Who gives evidence and does this matter?', Parliamentary Affairs 71(2): 283-304.

(2018) 'A Recipe for Impact? Exploring knowledge requirements in the UK Parliament and beyond', Evidence and Policy 14(2): 259-76. Co-authors: K. Dommett and B. Prosser.

(2014) ‘The Silent Revolution: A political history of the politics of patronage and reform’, Contemporary British History 28(1): 24-55. Co-author: M. Flinders.

Book chapters

(2020) ‘Democracy: Problems and challenges, opportunities and design’, in K. Larres and R. Wittlinger (eds.) Understanding Global Politics: Actors and themes in international affairs, London: Routledge. Co-author: M. Flinders.

(2018) ‘Towards an Interpretive Parliamentary Studies’, in J. Brichzin, D. Krichewsky, L. Ringel and J. Schank (eds.) The Sociology of Parliaments. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Co-author: R.A.W. Rhodes.

(2018) ‘Supporting Members and Peers’, in C. Leston-Bandeira and L. Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (first edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Co-author: J. Mulley.

Reports and policy engagement

(2023) Good Evidence? How do select committees use evidence to support their work?. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.

(2020) Evaluating Academic Engagement with UK Legislatures: Exchanging knowledge on knowledge exchange. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. Co-author: D. Beswick.

We have disseminated our findings through blogs and articles: Summary of findings for Universities Policy Engagement Unit, A 12-point plan for universities to improve parliamentary engagement and How to get into parliaments (£)

(2019) 'The effectiveness and influence of the select committee system', written submission to the House of Commons Liaison Committee. Inquiry details here.

(2018) 'Establishing select committees in a new parliament', written submission to the House of Commons Procedure Committee. Inquiry details here.

(2017) 'Enhancing Scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament', written submission to Commission on Parliamentary Reform (final report here). Co-author: J. Mitchell.

(2016) A Recipe for Parliamentary Impact? An academic guide to effective engagement. Sheffield: Sheffield Solutions Policy Briefing. Co-authors: K. Dommett and B. Prosser.

Blogs and public engagement 

(2019) 'A Conservative majority means parliamentary scrutiny is in danger of being weakened', Democratic Audit, and PSA Parliaments Group blog.

(2019) 'The Shadow of John Bercow', UK in a Changing Europe Blog.

(2017) 'A Place Where MPs Try To Shine', commissioned article for Donmar Theatre production 'Committee... (A New Musical)'. More information here.

(2017) 'New parliament offers new opportunities for impact', Research Professional.