Research Topic: ‘Euroscepticism in Britain from the 1970s to the 1990s’ (BMBF-funded PhD studentship)
Email: d.j.lawton@qmul.ac.uk
My project focusses on the emergence of a network of Eurosceptic individuals working in broadcasting, journalism, literature, and in the legal profession from the 1980s to the 2000s. By exploring this rhizome of like-minded people, I want to shed light upon the growth of ‘Euroscepticism’ outside of Westminster politics and explore the ways in which individuals came together at critical junctures to protest and prophesise about future European integration. My aim is to connect sceptical visions of a ‘European’ future to the broad network of cultural influencers who helped produce them, thus exploring the relationship between politics, culture, and the institutions through which they were mediated to wider publics in Britain. Most of the individuals that I am interested in were affiliated with right-wing politics to some degree; however, they were not politicians nor full-time political organisers. Many of them recalled the 1980s as a transitional decade for their attitudes about European integration. My project seeks to understand this era by moving forward in time with these individuals, as their anxieties about further integration and the future development of the EU grew.
Primary supervisors: James Ellison and Christina von Hodenberg
Second supervisor: Rob Saunders