The University of Sheffield
Department of Politics

Academic Staff: A.J. Payne

Professor Tony Payne, BA, MA (Cambridge), PhD (Manchester)

Tony Payne

Professor

Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 1653
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 1717
Room: Elmfield Lodge, B3

email : A.J.Payne@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Tony Payne joined the Department in 1985 and was promoted to Professor in 1993. He was Chairman of the Department between 1992 and 1995 and again between 1998 and 2001. He was the Director of the Political Economy Research Centre (PERC) from 1996 to 1999 and Co-Director from 2002 to 2004. He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Social Sciences from June 2008 until August 2012. He is now co-director (with Colin Hay) of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI).

He read history and social and political science at Cambridge and subsequently studied at the University of the West Indies and at Manchester from where he received his PhD. He worked at Huddersfield before coming to Sheffield. His principal research interests are the politics of the Caribbean, international political economy and the politics of development. He was a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1989, was Hallsworth Fellow in Political Economy at the University of Manchester in 1995-6, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick between 1997-2006, and was Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London between 2002-6. He was Managing Editor of New Political Economy from 1995 to 2005. He was also Visiting Professor in the Department of Public Administration of City University Hong Kong in May 2005 and Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University in January-April 2006.

Teaching

I have always relished the teaching that comes as a core part of being a 'Sheffield Academic'. I like lecturing, because it is in part about performing, and I like arguing and debating, which is really what seminars are about. Most 'knowledge' in the field of politics is contested and so our subject depends to a great extent on clarifying our thinking on important issues and of course understanding the positions of others. As I see it, that is at the heart of an education in politics. Teaching also involves meeting lots and lots of interesting people from all walks of life and all countries. Students are endlessly different and interesting and great fun to get to know. So I have always tried to promote a lively atmosphere of discussion in my classes and an informal enough atmosphere to encourage wide participation. When a seminar and a discussion takes off and the arguments flow, it is a hugely exciting experience. It is too much to expect that this happens in every session, because sometimes things just have to be explained and some tough plodding through difficult material is required. All that said, if I cannot make my students enthuse about the fascinating topics that we are lucky enough to be able to consider in lectures and seminars in politics then I am disappointed and feel that I have not done my job well enough. I want everyone to share some of the excitement about new debates, new events and new ideas that I still share. I am now one of the Directors of SPERI and so I am not doing any undergraduate or postgraduate teaching (although I do still have a couple of PhD students).

Current Research

His current research embraces three projects:

Key Publications

Books

Monographs

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

PhD Supervision

He is second supervisor to two students.