The University of Sheffield
Department of Politics

Academic Staff: Rhiannon Vickers

Rhiannon VickersDr. Rhiannon Vickers, B.A., Ph.D. (Warwick)

Senior Lecturer

Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 1694
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 1717
Room: 1.30 Elmfield

email : R.M.Vickers@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Dr. Vickers was awarded her PhD from the University of Warwick in 1998. She was a Lecturer at the University of Leeds for six years before joining the Politics Department at Sheffield in 2001. She has been a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University, Washington D.C. She is Deputy Head of Department.

Dr Vickers’ principle areas of research and teaching are International Relations and foreign policy. She has recently published the second volume of a two-volume study of the political history of the Labour Party’s Foreign Policy. She has also published on the foreign policy of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, on New Labour’s foreign policy, and on Blair and the invasion of Iraq. In addition to this she has an ongoing interest in public diplomacy and public perceptions of foreign and security policy. Her most recent research has been on the British response to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, and she is developing an interest in British maritime security.

Teaching

In my teaching I encourage students to critically engage with current issues and debates in International Relations and foreign policy, while placing them within a broader theoretical and historical context. My goal is to stimulate the students’ enthusiasm about the subject matter under discussion, to encourage them to go beyond the contents of the module outline and to feel enabled to conduct their own independent learning and research. In my seminars I use a range of methods such as group work and student presentations in order to promote inquiry-based learning and the development of students' analytical, communication and transferable skills.

POL 219 Contemporary International Affairs
This module investigates contemporary trends in international affairs and corresponding debates in IR literature. It examines the nature of foreign policy, in particular US grand strategy since 9/11 and the ‘war on terror’; ideas about sources of world order and disorder; and debates about the changing nature of war, humanitarian intervention, and sources of conflict. The module also addresses the development of non-state actors, the role of the media, and the threats posed by terrorist and criminal networks. The module highlights the nature of the state, international society, sovereignty, human rights and globalisation.

POL383 Foreign Policy: Power and Persuasion
This module examines the nature of foreign policy, the goals that a state’s officials seek to attain abroad, the values that give rise to these objectives, and the means or instruments used to pursue them, such as diplomacy, sanctions, aid, and the use of force. It then examines the ways in which governments seek to communicate their foreign policy through targeted persuasive techniques such as propaganda and public diplomacy.

POL 384 Foreign Policy Project
This module involves supervised research on an agreed topic arising out of work done on the taught module POL 383, Foreign Policy: Power and Persuasion. Students will meet their tutor individually, undertake individual research and be assessed on the basis of a 7,000 word essay. Students are expected to design, organise and execute a research plan, and in doing so will manage their own learning, reflect on it critically, and seek and use constructive feedback.

POL6970 Theory and Practice of International Relations
Rhiannon co-teaches this module with Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya.
This module offers an advanced level appreciation of the theory and practice of International Relations. In addition to providing a detailed understanding of the rival theoretical perspectives and the issues that divide them, it poses the question of whether it is possible to overcome the main disagreements between these competing approaches. In the second part of the module we examine a range of important issues in contemporary international politics and use these to unpack the limits of our theoretical imagination.

All members of academic staff also engage in personal supervision of individual students on the third level dissertations and Masters level dissertations.

Professional activities and recognition

Assistant Editor of the journals Political Studies and Political Studies Review, June 2006 to June 2011.

Current Research

Dr Vickers has recently completed a two-volume study on The Labour Party and the World. These books describe and analyse the Labour Party's foreign policy from 1900 to 2010. She is currently working on the British response to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

Key Publications

Books

Articles

Book Chapters

Click here for Dr Vickers' full list of publications.

PhD Supervision

I currently supervise students in the areas of US foreign and security policy, British foreign and security policy, the governance of security, and humanitarian intervention.

Areas of present supervision:

Areas of past supervision: