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Dr Alex Prichard

PhD (Loughborough University)

Associate Professor, President of the University of Exeter UCU Branch

Amory B217

In the academic year 2023-2024, I will be an Independent Social Research Foundation Mid-Career Fellow. 
 
Office hours in the summer term by appointment. 
 
Dr Prichard is Associate Professor of International Political Theory in the Department of Politics. He is a leading authority on anarchist political thought and history, with particular interest in how anarchists theorise war, peace and global order.
 
Working with Professor Ruth Kinna (Loughborough), and funded by the ESRC and ISRF, Dr Prichard has uncovered how anarchists constitutionalise, which has resulted in a number of important publications.
 
Dr Prichard has also co-edited three collections on the historical intersections between various anarchisms and marxisms over the past one hundred years.
 
Dr Prichard was the Director of Postgraduate Research for the College of Social Sciences and International Studies (2021-2022) and Director of Education for the Department of Politics between 2018-2020. He has been a UCU rep and caseworker since 2018, and is currently the Predident of the University of Exeter Branch. 
 
In 2005 Dr Prichard co-founded the PSA Anarchist Studies Network, which he convenes again from 2020. Dr Prichard is also an Associate Editor of Anarchist Studies since 2010.
 
Dr Prichard's publications are available at Research Gate. For an archive of Dr Prichard's research on anarchist constitutionalising, head to the Anarchy Rules website. Michael Albert recently interviewd Dr Prichard on his work for his RevolutionZ podcasts, available here. And Dr Prichard and Professor Kinna explain anarchist constitutionalising here. An older interview on the theory and practice of anarchism, with Professor Saul Newman, on Australia's ABC Radio, can be found here. 

Research group links

Research interests

Dr Prichard is a member of the Centre of Advanced International Studies and the Centre for Political Thought at the University of Exeter. His research sits within and spans both centres. He has published in the following areas: 
  • Anarchist political thought
  • International political theory
  • The ethics and phenomenology of war and violence
  • Republican political theory
  • Constitutional politics
  • Co-production methods in political philosophy

Research supervision

I would be happy to supervise graduate and doctoral research in the following areas:

  • Classical and contemporary International Political Theory
  • Mainstream and critical International Relations theory
  • Anarchist theory and practice
  • The history of socialism
  • Normative approaches to International Relations
  • Global constitutionalism
  • The history and historiography of International Relations
  • Global ethics, the ethics of war and of violence

Research students

Current PhD supervision

  • Melis Kirtilli 'The Political Economy of Decentralised Anarchist Federalism' (with Prof. Rob Lamb), ESRC +3.
  • Maria Della Porta Rodiani 'Anarchism, Cultural resistance and the Prefiguration of Alternatives in Palestine' (with Prof. Ilan Pape, IAIS, Exeter), Al Qasimi Fellowship
  • Chris Beaumont 'Anarchist Agency in International Relations' (with Professor Jonathan Joseph, Bristol), ESRC 1+3.
  • George Rowland, UWE, 'Plannng and Off Grid Rural Developments'. (with Dr Katie McClymont, geography and Environmental Management, UWE), ESRC 1+3.
  • Aarou Huckerby, 'Anarchism and Speciesism' with Prof. Samantha Hurn and Prof. Brian Rappert
  • Andrew Pate, 'UN responses in a fractured world', with Dr Lise Herman. 

Completed PhD supervision

  • Andreas Karoutas ‘The insurgent minority and democratic thought' (with Dr Andy Schaap, Politics Penryn)
  • Biao Zhang, 'Reaon in International Relations: An Historical Image of the Discipline' (with Prof. Iain Hampsher Monk). Dr Zhang now teaches a CUPL, Beijing.
  • Tatevik Mnatsakanyan, ‘Silencing and Binding Effects in Foreign Policy Discourse’ (with Prof. John Heathershaw). Dr Mnatsakanyan now teaches at Loughborough University, London. 

 

External impact and engagement

Dr Alex Prichard’s is an impact case study lead for Department of Politics.

His research on anarchist constitutionalsing has supported the development of new organisations’ constitutions and democratic capacity. The impact of this research has reached across anarchist and radical democratic movements in the UK, to Europe and beyond, changing how a range of third sector organisations, including an independent union, housing and worker cooperatives, civil society organisations and NGOs, organise and constitutionalise. The project website can be found here: www.anarchyrules.info 

Biography

Education

  • PhD, Politics, International Relations and European Studies, Loughborough University (2008)
  • MSc Econ, International Politics (Theory), Aberystwyth University (2003)
  • MA Hons (by research), International Relations, University of Wollongong, N.S.W. (2001)
  • BA Hons, International Relations, Nottingham Trent University (1994)

Academic Employment

  • Associate Professor in International Relations, University of Exeter, 2020-
  • Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Univerity of Exeter, 2015-2020
  • Lecturer in International Relations, University of Exeter, 2012-2015
  • Senior lecturer in International Relations, Coventry University, 2012
  • LSE Fellow in International Political Theory, 2010-2012
  • ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Bristol, 2009-2010
  • Research Officer, EU FP7 Project, 'Building a Just and Durable Peace by Piece', University of Bath, 2008-2009
  • Teaching Fellow, International Relations, University of Bath, 2007-2008

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