Elections by Congregation: Council (Humanities and Social Sciences constituency) - Trinity Term 2022

Oxford faces a number of challenges that will require a rethinking of many of our strategies, structures and practices. In this critical period, I will advocate in Council an approach that emphasises the impact of change on our working lives and our students. In nearly three decades at Oxford, I have gained an understanding of the experience of work in various contexts and at different career stages, which I shall bring to bear on Council deliberations.

Significant financial pressures will affect our academic resources and the working conditions of both permanent and fixed-term staff. The climate crisis necessitates a change in our work practices and the adoption of new technology for overseas research and collaborations, and much else. EDI matters have assumed an urgency for both staff and students.

These are but a few of the issues that will affect us all and require strategies alive to the needs of students and staff, that I am well placed to represent. I teach graduates and undergraduates across several departments and faculties (International Development, Area Studies, Politics, History). I work both as a sole researcher and in a team with external funding. I have been Head of Department, and have had a variety of student and staff-facing roles and academic administration responsibilities, ranging from Director of Graduate Studies and Senior Tutor to membership of the University’s Personnel Committee, Research Staff Working Group, Equality and Diversity Unit, Visitatorial Board, Grievance Committee and the Conference of Colleges Steering Committee and Appeals Tribunal.

I am Professor of Society and the Internet (from 2004) and Professorial Fellow at Mansfield College. From 2011 to 2018 I was Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, a multi-disciplinary department in the Social Sciences Division. Before I came to Oxford I was UCL’s first political scientist and the Director of the School of Public Policy. As a social scientist with a background in computer science and mathematics, I have a keen interest in methodological innovation and research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. From 2018 I have directed the Public policy programme of research at the Alan Turing Institute for data science and AI, where we work with policymakers to maximise the potential of data-driven technologies for public good.

Having spent more than 15 years as Head of Department or Programme Director, I have wide experience of academic leadership and hiring, supporting, mentoring and managing researchers at all career stages. I would like now to take my experience to the wider stage of the University Council, for example bringing awareness of the needs of people working on the ground to tackle longstanding issues of career progression and contract stability. My fields of research are demographically narrow - I care passionately about issues of equality, diversity and inclusion, and am excited by the prospect of tackling them across the University. As well as my longstanding and wide-ranging track record of social science research, I would bring to Council my experience of multidisciplinary research spanning all Divisions of the University.

From being the president of student representatives at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, to my graduate years in Berkeley, and then being a member of college and faculty committees in Cambridge and Oxford, I have always been involved in the governance of universities and dedicated to their fair and democratic working. I have never been afraid to ask tough questions, especially when I was on Council as Junior Proctor. In my departing oration, just before lockdown, I remarked: “[…] alongside this narrative of success, there is also a narrative of challenge, and lessons to be learnt… The main challenge here is: does our University have the means of its ambitions while also being able to address its core needs? And therefore what should our core priorities really be? Indeed, in building possible future narratives, we should have the courage, flexibility and humility to change course if things do not go according to plan.” This is truer than ever as we prepare to transition to a new VC, a new strategic plan, and some old and new challenges (e.g. investment in research and teaching, welfare, pensions, affordability to live, work and study in Oxford). Decisions need to be made and communicated in a transparent way in order for people to engage with them and support needs to be expressed not only in words but also in actions in order for all people to feel empowered in our vibrant and increasingly diverse University community.