School of Social and Political Science

Background

Qualifications

• Licentiaat Politieke Wetenschappen (KULeuven)
• MA International Relations (ULBruxelles)
• D.Phil Politics, St Antony's College (University of Oxford)

Course convenor (2024-25)

• Majoritarian Nationalism, Populism and Ethnic Conflict in South Asia (honours, semester 2)

Contribute to following courses: 

• Comparative Politics in a Globalizing World (sem 1)
• South Asia in the World (sem 2)
• Eastminster (semester 2) 

Biographical statement

Wilfried Swenden is Professor of South Asian and Comparative Politics. He hails from Belgium where he completed undergraduate studies in Political Science (Leuven) and International Relations (Bruxelles). He completed his D.Phil (University of Oxford) followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in Leuven, funded by the Flemish Fund of Scientific Research (FWO). He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2004. Between 2015 and 2018 he was Co-Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the university. 

Wilfried has worked extensively on multi-level governance and federalism. Although his earlier publications focus on federalism in Western Europe (and Australia), since 2011 he has developed a strong interest in South Asian Politics, which is now his main geographical focus of research. His current research interests are situated in the following three areas: (1) the comparative study of constitutional dynamics and intergovernmental relations in federal states, especially India  (2) multi-level party systems and territorial party politics, in particular the organization and strategies of statewide parties in a multi-level context; (3) the dynamics of majoritarian nationalism in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) an how they influence processes of religious, linguistic and territorial accommodation. This is part of a current monograph project with Prof Katharine Adeney (University of Nottingham). 

Wilfried recently completed a British Academy-GRCF collaborative grant on COVID-19 and the South Asian State (2021-2023) involving colleagues from Gothenburg, Delhi, IIT Hyderabad and Jaffna (Sri Lanka) to study the effect of COVID-19 on worker rights in India (Delhi, Kerala) and Sri Lanka. The main findings are expected to be published in an edited volume, contracted with Helsinki University Press . Prior to this he completed a Leverhulme International network on Continuity and Change in Indian Federalism (2014-17) involving three UK and three India-based universities. Apart from his BA and Leverhulme funded work, previous research has been supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research, the University of Edinburgh Global Innovation Fund and the Hayter Fund. He has published two monographs, six edited collections and (co-) authored several articles, which appeared among others in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Comparative European Politics, Contemporary South Asia, the European Journal of Political Research, Government and Opposition, India Review, the International Political Science Review, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of South Asian Development, Party Politics, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, Regional & Federal Studies, Regional Studies, Seminar, Studies in Indian Politics, Territory, Politics and Governance, the Swiss Political Science Review and West European Politics.

Wilfried served as the editor of Regional and Federal Studies from January 2008 until December 2015 and as Managing Editor from January 2016 until May 2018. Since July 2018 he is the South Asia editor for the Asian Journal of Political Science. He is a former member of the University of Edinburgh Press Committee (2022-25), a former co-convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Federalism and Regionalism (2007-13), the largest European network in the field of territorial politics and a former Vice-Chair of IPSA RC28 (2012-2016), the Research Committee on Comparative Federalism and Multi-Level Governance of the International Political Science Association. A full list of publications can be found by clicking on the Publication Tab at the top right-hand corner of this profile.