Professor Kenneth Dyson - BSc (Econ), MSc (Econ), PhD, FRSA, FRHistSoc, AcSS, FLSW, FBA
Overview
Position:
Research Professor
Email:
DysonKH@cardiff.ac.ukTelephone: +44(0)29 208 75636
Fax: +44(0)29 208 74946
Extension: 75636
Location: Room 1.13, 65-68 Park Place
Office hours: Wednesday, 09:00 - 10:00
My interests lie at the intersection of European integration, comparative political economy and German studies, especially cross-national comparisons of economic and monetary policies in Europe and in post-war Germany. I seek to explore the complex interactions of ideas, interests and institutions across space and over time, with a particular focus on underlying attitudes to public authority and its use. I have a long-standing interest in state traditions in Europe and more specifically in German policies and politics in a European context, especially processes of economic reform.
Over the last decade my research has been principally concerned with the historical evolution of European macro-economic governance and policies, especially the euro: its genesis, its negotiation, its governance, accession issues especially relating to Central and Eastern Europe, its effects on EU member states, and more recently the political economy of time.
I have been interested more recently in how the Euro Area, and its reform under crisis conditions, is affecting the balance between unitary and differentiated integration in the European Union. More generally, I have been exploring the political economy of reforms to European economic governance in response to the post-2007 crises. . My most recent project examines the long-term characteristics of the relationship between states, debt, and power in European history and integration. My next project is a cross-national collaboration, led by me and Professor Ivo Maes of the National Bank of Belgium, on the founding fathers of the euro. With Alistair Cole I am co-chair of the Research Unit in European Governance, Identity and Public Policy (EGIPP), as well as director of Postgraduate Research.
Selected Projects
Expert Elites in European Integration: EMU
Sponsor: European Commission FP6 integrated project
Value: £40,000
Duration: 2006-09
EMU in a Widening and Deepening Europe
Sponsor: European Commission FP6 network of excellence
Value: £16,000
Duration: 2006-09
The Euro at Ten: Europeanization, Convergence and Power
Sponsor: British Academy
Value: £12,266
Duration: 2007-8
Central Banking in the Age of the Euro
Sponsor: British Academy and EU CONSENT
Value: £10,000
Duration: 2007-8
Whose Europe? The Politics of Differentiated Integration
Sponsor: British Academy
Value: £7,500
Duration: 2008-9
The UK’s Role in European Economic Governance: Meeting the Challenge of Economic Reform
Sponsor: European Commission
Value: £23,429
Duration: 2010-11
Research Unit
Publications
Research
Over the last five years I have completed four major collaborative cross-national projects. The first examined the effects of the euro on EU member states over its first decade (The Euro At 10, OUP). It was based on a major British Academy conference in May 2007. this project led me to examine the ‘political economy of time’ in European economic governance.
The second (led by myself with Martin Marcussen, Copenhagen University) involved a joint British Academy/ EU-CONSENT FP6 conference at the Academy in November 2007 on the changing world of European central banking under the impacts of globalization and Europeanization. This project was published by OUP as Central Banks in the Age of the Euro (OUP).
A third project (with Lucia Quaglia, Sussex University) involved major archival research for an authoritative critical commentary on key documents in European macro-economic governance and policies (European Economic Governance and Policies, 2 Volumes, OUP).
Fourthly, with Angelos Sepos (Manchester University) I organized a major cross-national research project with British Academy funding) on Which Europe? The Politics of Differentiated Integration (Palgrave). It explores the relationship between ‘deepening’ and ‘widening’ of the EU and ‘differentiated’ integration, assessing the value of competing explanatory frameworks.
Recently, I wrote a long preface for the re-publication of my State Tradition in Western Europe in the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Classics Series. I also worked with Thomas Saalfeld (Bamberg University) on a journal special issue on the German Grand Coalition 2005-09 in comparative and historical perspective. Current research examines states, debt, and power in European history and integration.
Postgraduate Students
I have recently supervised the following research students:
- Sofia Chatzidi: ‘Regulating International Trade in Antiquities: Britain and Greece Compared’
- Penny Evans: ‘Differentiated Integration in the European Union: The Case of the Aerospace Industry’
- Andy Klom: ‘The European Union – Mercosur Negotiations 1990-2005: A Failed Exercise in Multilateral Negotiations or a Successful Attempt at Geopolitics?’
- Ruth Mullineux: ‘The Political Impacts of Polish Migration in Wales’
- Maciej Szczepanik: ‘The Europeanization of Constitutional Law in East Central Europe’
- Nicholas Griffin: ‘State Capacity Building in the Ukraine’ (ESRC)
- David Humphries: ‘The development of German Family Policy, 1998-2009’ (ESRC)
Biography
Career profile
I started my career as Lecturer (subsequently Senior Lecturer) in Politics at the University of Liverpool and was later Professor of European Studies at Bradford University and for ten years Head of Department. In the RAE 2001 the Bradford Department of European Studies gained the top 5* rating. I was also co-founder of the European Briefing Unit at Bradford University and research coordinator for the DES-funded PICKUP Europe project (£330,000). Visiting Professorships have included the Free University of Berlin (DAAD Distinguished Research Professor), Konstanz University, McMaster University (Distinguished Hooker Professor), and Siena University. I have chaired the Association for the Study of German Politics (ASGP), of which I was a founder, and the Standing Conference of Heads of European Studies (SCHES), of which I was also a founder. In 1996 and 2001 I chaired the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Panel in European Studies and was a panel member in 1992.
Awards and prizes
I was awarded the German Federal Service Cross (First Class) for services to Anglo-German relations, and in 2003 given an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Aston University for services to European Studies. In 1997 I was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. I was also elected an Academician of the Learned Societies of the Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2010 a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, of which I am a Council member. My book with Kevin Featherstone (The Road to Maastricht: Negotiating Economic and Monetary Union, OUP) was voted an academic ‘book of the year’ by the US library journal Choice. My book The State Tradition in Western Europe has been selected for re-publication in the ECPR Classics Series. In 2003 the German Academic Exchange Service awarded me a Distinguished Visiting Research Professorship at the Free University Berlin.
Memberships/External Activities
Within the British Academy I am a member of Section S5 (Politics), was Section Research Grants Officer for Politics and International Relations (1998-2005), and was a member of the Research Grants Committee (2002-7) and of the International Policy Committee (2003-11). I sit on the Academy’s EU Working Party and its Europe Panel. I have briefed British Ambassadors and the Heads of Mission in Berlin before they took up posts. I have recently been involved in two EU FP6 programmes (EU CONSENT and EU INTUNE). Other activities include co-editing the journal German Politics and acting as editorial advisory member for the Journal of European Integration. I also serve as external advisers to the European Institute at the LSE, on promotions and strategic review at the LSE, and to Wolfgang Wessels’ chair at Cologne University. Since the RAE 2001 I have been invited to serve as an RAE consultant by Aston University, Liverpool University, London Metropolitan University, London School of Economics, Salford University, Surrey University, and Sussex University. I acted as consultant to the BBC2 series on the ‘making of the euro’. Recent PhD external examining includes Aalborg, Birmingham (two), LSE (two), Oxford and Sheffield. Over the last 5 years I have organized five major research conferences for the British Academy. I am a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and a member of its Council.
Presentations
I was most recently asked to speak at the centenary conference of the British Academy on Britain and Europe; at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office/UACES conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome; at an Austrian National Bank conference; at the Olaf Palme International Centre in Stockholm; at the Renner Institute in Vienna; at two EU-funded conferences in Istanbul on the EU and Turkey; at Karlstad University in Sweden; and have lectured at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Siena University, the IEP in Lille, and in Bratislava. Recent presentations have included Edinburgh and Hull universities. I have recently organized five international research workshops in Cardiff University; in May 2009 on Euro Outsiders in the Crisis (FP6 funded); in September 2008 on differentiated integration in Europe (British Academy funded); in May 2007 on European Central Banking (FP6 funded); in May 2006 on European States and the Euro (FP6 funded); and another on Economic Reform in Germany (Anglo-German Foundation funded).
Teaching profile
I have most recently taught comparative political economy; comparative public policy; German politics and policies; research methods; European economic governance and policies. My main teaching is at the Masters level. Past PhD students of mine have gone on to lectureships at Bradford, Cyprus, Hull, Manchester and Strathclyde universities, as well as to a research institute in Athens.
