Our Research
The Department of Politics, History and International Relations has evolved from the former Department of European Studies. The latter, over a period of twenty-five years, obtained an internationally-recognised reputation for research across the disciplines of Area Studies (including History and Cultural Studies), Politics and International Relations (IR). The change of name (in 2004) reflects strategic changes in staffing and teaching provision but equally a shift toward greater scholarly engagement with issues drawn from the Politics and IR subject disciplines such as globalisation, governance and ideational contestation both in Europe and the broader international arena. In line with the Department’s thematic reorientation, the Centre for the Study of International Governance (CSIG) was established in 2006-07 under the joint directorship of Professors Brian Hocking and Mike Smith. CSIG acts as a vehicle for research funding proposals and activities such as conferences, seminars and workshops both at Loughborough and in other venues, often in cooperation with national and international partners. The Department's research centres have acted as a means of enhancing the thematic concentration of research within the Department. While much of the Department's research output has been the product of individual scholarship, there are thematic clusters of overlapping interest. These include work on anarchism, the external relations of the EU, British foreign policy, policy studies , and contemporary history.