Professor Simon Lightfoot

Professor Simon Lightfoot

Profile

I joined POLIS in 2005 from Liverpool John Moores University and became a Professor in 2019. I am a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana and have been a visiting fellow at the National Europe Centre, Australian National University and the Corvinus University of Budapest. I am co-convenor of the EADI Working Group ‘The EU as a Development Actor’. I am supervising PhD students at the Australian National University, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania and the University of Passau, Germany.

I am interested in learning and teaching issues. In 2009 I won the Political Studies Association's Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching and was awarded a full University Teaching Fellowship. In 2013 I won the prestigious award of National Teaching Fellow.

Research interests

I am interested in the broad topic of development aid. In particular:

  • Development aid policy in the UK
  • Development Policy in Central and Eastern Europe
  • EU development policy and climate change

I am also interested into various aspects of research into teaching and learning in Politics and International Relations.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD, Nottingham Trent University
  • BA (Hons) Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University

Professional memberships

  • UACES
  • PSA
  • ECPR

Student education

I currently contribute to the undergraduate programmes in the school.

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>