Postgraduate community

The PhD in Political Theory at Exeter

The Centre for Political Thought is home to an intellectually vibrant and supportive network of PhD students who benefit from being teaching colleagues as well as fellow researchers. Students pursue a range of research interests, and have excellent facilities in which to discuss topics, texts and thinkers. Theory students are part of a cohort of postgraduate researchers doing work in other research clusters and have ample opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary work. There are many opportunities to develop professionally by participating in conferences, workshops, and the weekly reading group meetings. Doctoral students in political theory also benefit from frequent and supportive contact with the fantastic academic staff here at Exeter.

All PhD students have the opportunity to take on paid employment as teaching assistants during their time at Exeter.

The Centre for Political Thought at Exeter has an outstanding record for the professional placement of completed PhDs.

Our students

Name	Year	Title	Supervisors	Placement
Bingshu Zhao	Current	Bringing the family back into early modern political thought	Dario Castiglione and Ross Carroll
Lingzheng Zeng	Current	Isaiah Berlin: Pluralism and Toleration	Dario Castiglione and Catriona McKinnon
Dougie Booth	Current	Marxism and Socialist Republicanism	James Muldoon and Andy Schaap
Lewis Cooper	Current	To follow	Andy Schaap and Bice Maiguashca
Vivian Hall	Current	The Whig Coryphaeus: Walter Moyle and the Civic Humanist Tradition	Ross Carroll
Riina Ylinen	Current	Hannah Arendt’s capitalism’ and the ‘value of value’ in contemporary India	Andy Schaap
Oliver Roberts-Garratt	Current	Foucault, Hyppolite, and the Ineffable	James Muldoon
Jessica Stanier	Current	Phenomenology and Aging	Robin Durie
Andreas Karoutas	Current	Overturning the Majority	Andrew Schaap and Alex Prichard
Roberto Baccarini	Current	The Nature of the EU’s Institutional Structure and its Role in the Response to the Covid-19 Crisis	Dario Castiglione
Yutao Zhao	2021	Self-love and the artificiality of Civil Society: Hobbes, Mandeville and Hume	Dario Castiglione and Ross Carroll	Lecturer, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China)
Zhangmei Tang	2021	The Capacity to World: The Transcendental Ground of Hannah Arendt’s Conception of the Human	Andrew Schaap and Robin Durie	Postdoctoral Researcher, Sichuan University, Chengdu (China)
Katherine Townsend	2020	Liberalism and Problems with Female Genital Cutting	Robert Lamb and Andrew Schaap	Associate Lecturer, Politics, Exeter
Becca Mavin	2019	Afghan asylum seekers in the U.K.	Andrew Schaap
Martin Moorby	2019	Marx's "Riddle": Alien Politics in the Thought of Karl Marx	Iain Hampsher-Monk and Dario Castiglione	Associate Lecturer, Politics, Exeter
Jack Griffiths	2018	Rethinking "Flourishing" as an Organic Concept of the Good: The Interpretation of Development and the Evaluation of Life	Robin Durie and John Dupré	Associate Lecturer, Politics, Exeter
Keith Sutherland	2017	Giving Up on the Concept of Representation	Dario Castiglione	Partner, Imprint Academic
Roberto Baldoli	2016	Aldo Capitini and the Religious Liberation of Nonviolence	Claudio Raedelli and Andy Schaap	Associate Researcher, UCL
Farhad Kerimov	2016	Pluralism, Discourse, and Democratic Politics	Andy Schaap and Dario Castiglione	Head of International and Comparative Politics Department, American University of Central Asia
Biao Zhang	2015	Concepts of Rationality in Classical Political Theorists and Their Representations in IR Theory	Iain Hampsher-Monk and Alex Prichard	Associate Professor, China University of Law and Politics, Beijing (China)
Jan Pieter Beetz	2015	Popular Sovereignty in Europe	Dario Castiglione and Nicole Bolleyer	Assistant Professor, Utrecht University
Stuart Ingham	2015	Egalitarianisms and Exploitation	Robert Lamb	Deputy Director of Policy at the Labour Party
Alexandra Boehme	2014	The Multidimensional Sovereignty of the European Union	Dario Castiglione	Senior Associate, EMEA Centre for Regulatory Strategy
Christiane Smith	2014	Articulating Ecological Injustices	Bice Maiguashca and Andy Schaap
Gabriel Thebolt	2014	Reconceptualising Emergent Wholes	Robin Durie
Owen Thomas	2014	The Iraq Enquiries: Publicity, Secrecy, and Liberal Security	Andy Schaap and John Heathershaw	Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Christopher Fear	2013	Concepts of Time and History in Nineteenth Century (British) Political Theory and Cultural Criticism	Iain Hampsher-Monk and Ed Skidelsky	Lecturer, University of Hull
Mike Cailes	2012	The Divergence of Thought on War and Peace in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe	Iain Hampsher-Monk
Robin Dunford	2012	Immanent Creativity and Constitutive Power	Robin Durie and Andy Schaap	Lecturer, University of Brighton
Marios Filis	2012	Political Ethics: History and Theory	Dario Castiglione	Outsourcing Business Manager, LCH
Christopher Nathan	2012	The Basis of Human Equality	Keith Hyams	Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Simon Townsend	2012	Nietzche's Monster of Energy: The Self-Creation of the Great Man	Robin Durie	Associate Lecturer, Politics, Exeter
Robin Douglass	2011	The Political Thought of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau	Iain Hampsher-Monk	Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, Kings College London
Claire Bonham	2010	Rethinking the Divide: Beyond the Politics of Demand vs. The Policy of the Act Debate	Bice Maiguashca and Andy Schaap	Strategic Lead, Volunteering, Salvation Army
Joanie Willett	2010	Why is Cornwall so Poor?: Narrative, Perception, and Identity	Robin Durie and Jonathan Githens-Mazer	Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Saud Al-Tammami	2009	Enlightenment in Contemporary Arab Thought: Juxtaposing Averroes and Kant	Iain Hampsher-Monk
Cassie Hague	2009	Polluted Inheritances?: Children, The Political Imagination, and the Search for a Non-Oppositional Notion of Child Citizenship Rights	Bice Maiguashca and Robin Durie
Nikola Regent	2009	Magistra Vitae: History as Inducement for Action	Iain Hampsher-Monk	Research Fellow, Australian National University
Benjamin Thompson	2009	Activity, Passivity, and the Politics of Will and Disposition in the Thought of Locke and Rousseau	Iain Hampsher-Monk and Dario Castiglione	Associate Professor, Kyungpook National University