About subject area content
About
About content
Politics and International Relations (PIR) is home to over 600 undergraduates and 100 Scottish, UK and international postgraduate students every year. Our alumni include government ministers, members of parliament, policy analysts, broadcasters, business leaders, teachers and an increasing number of social entrepreneurs.
Our academic staff produce world-class research and impact. That research excellence informs our teaching and knowledge exchange.
- Some key areas of expertise include:
- constitutional, territorial and Scottish politics
- political behaviour
- European politics
- foreign and domestic policy
- gender politics
- international political economy
- security studies
- the politics of the Middle East
- political theory
- environment politics
Across all subfields, we cultivate a culture of responsible research, paying close attention to research integrity and ethics, and ensuring our work is socially responsible.
To see what our students, staff and alumni are up to, explore these pages, which celebrate our student activities and success and list a lively series of talks, including our hugely popular staff-student seminar series 'The Stoa', organised with the Edinburgh Political Union. You'll also find our contact details if you want to visit this amazing city, engage with our activities and asocial media, or just find out more.
Professor Meryl Kenny,
Head of Politics and International Relations
Our teaching
Our teaching and supervision are research-led, which meant that courses at all levels are delivered by scholars active in research in their respective fields and our students are encouraged to develop research interests of their own. All our students acquire research skills - including data analysis and research design - and use them to design and conduct independent inquiry.
Our PhD graduates have gone on to win post-doctoral fellowships and secure lectureships at top-ranked UK and international universities, and pursued a range of careers in policy, politics and public life. We have Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS) recognition and a number of quote and competition awards annually.
Our research
At the heart of Politics and International Relations is our research, which in turn shapes our curriculum. We produce research and impact at the highest international standards, abiding by principles of inclusivity, integrity, open research, intellectual openness and methodological pluralism.
Our research environment, outputs and impact have been ranked second in the UK for our world-leading research. (REF 2021)
One of our strengths is our policy engagement and impact. Our research directly informs policymakers, ministers and NGOs in several key areas, including constitutional change, human rights, data privacy, public policy and electoral reform. Several staff play a leadership role in the University’s global institutes and academies linked to justice, ethics, environment and security. These institutes address fundamental global challenges; the political expertise and engagement of our staff is key to that endeavour.
Our people
Beyond the University of Edinburgh, our staff members have cultivated extensive international networks, driven by a commitment to produce cutting edge research that is reliable, ethically rigorous, and publicly available to a wide range of stakeholders and beneficiaries. Moreover, our staff regularly hold visiting fellowships at universities around the world, deliver international plenary or keynote talks, and have their work translated into various languages.
Our excellence has been recognised in a series of prestigious awards, including research prizes like the UK political Studies Association's WJM Mackenzie Book Prize, Pippa Norris Prize, Richard Rose Prize, and Joni Lovenduski Prize; and teaching awards, including the Sir Bernard Crick and Jacqui Briggs Prizes, as well as the University's Chancellor Awards for Teaching.
Our local and global influence
Our location in Edinburgh has allowed us to make a transformative contribution to understanding governance, political behaviour, and constitutional and institutional change. At the same time, our interdisciplinary and international partnerships position us at the cutting edge of debates on global justice, human rights, security gender equality, climate change, and democratic innovation.
We host three research centres:
- the Centre for Security Research (CeSeR)
- the Centre for Ethics and Critical Thought (CRITIQUE)
- the Centre on Constitutional Chance (CCC)
These are key hubs for connecting PIR to the wider intellectual community with Edinburgh, as well as the world beyond.
Our centres have increasingly become engines of interdisciplinary research and impact, fostering close collaborations with colleagues in the fields of law, sociology, anthropology, economics, geoscience, business, informatics, psychology, theology, philosophy, and the arts.
An interdisciplinary approach
We host a number of research groups that support research on pressing topics in Politics and International Relations, through a rich variety of methods and theoretical approaches. Our research is interdisciplinary, with connections and partnerships across our academic areas of expertise.
- Our core research groups are:
We also cooperate with colleagues across the University through research groups and institutes including:
- The Edinburgh Europa Institute - a multi-disciplinary research centre devoted to the study of the governance, institutions, law and policies of the European Union, and of Europe more broadly
- GENDER.ED - the University's cross disciplinary network for gender and sexualities studies
- RACE.ED - a cross-University cluster exploring race, radicalisation and decolonial studies
- SKAPE - the School's multi-disciplinary Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy