Dr Anthony Ridge-Newman, Lecturer in Digital Media, has launched a new scholarly network designed to help facilitate impact from academic research that examines the British Conservative Party.
The Tory Research Impact Network (TRIN) and its committee will work in close partnership with the Political Studies Association (PSA) Conservatism Studies Group, which is also convened by Dr Ridge-Newman.
Through his role at the PSA, Dr Ridge-Newman has identified a gap between those who do research with interests in British Conservatism and those practically engaged within the Tory Party.
Dr Ridge-Newman said: “One of the Government’s agendas in relation to academic research has been to place an increasing emphasis on 'impact' from scholarly publications. Through my own research with the Conservatives, I have developed a network of contacts throughout the party. Therefore, in my current role at the PSA, I felt an incumbent duty to help facilitate pathways to impact for researchers specifically working on the British Conservative Party.”
The international 16-member TRIN committee, chaired by Dr Ridge-Newman, includes Prof Tim Bale (London), Dr Danielle Beswick (Birmingham), Dr Stephen Kelly (Liverpool Hope), Nina Rogers (Liverpool Hope), Dr David Torrance (House of Commons Library), Prof Agnès Alexandre-Collier (Bourgogne), Owen Meredith (Tory Reform Group), Dr Carlotta Redi (Conservative HQ), David Jones MP (former Secretary of State for Wales) and Margaret Mitchell MSP (Scottish Conservatives).
In keeping with this work, Dr Ridge-Newman, who published a book entitled ‘Cameron’s Conservatives and the Internet’, has been invited to join a panel for the Conservative Party’s philosophy seminar about ‘the impact of technology on society and the role of millennials in shaping a new world around us’.
The PSA Conservatism Studies Group aims to create a sense of identity and common purpose among those interested in a part of the political spectrum that has attracted far less scholarly interest than its obvious electoral and philosophical importance merits.
Dr Stephen Kelly, Liverpool Hope University, won the group’s book prize in 2017. Both Dr Kelly and Liverpool Hope PhD candidate, Nina Rogers, will form part of the groups’ 2018 book prize judging panel. Nina Rogers recently became the group’s communications officer. The group’s annual conference 2018, co-convened by Dr Ridge-Newman, will be hosted by Edinburgh University, June 2018, with a keynote from Prof Sarah Childs (London) about gender and conservatism.