About

I am a political scientist based at the University of Edinburgh, where I have been researching and teaching about parliamentary politics in the UK and beyond since October 2016.

My academic career began in 2012, when I embarked on a PhD at the University of Sheffield. My original topic (parliamentary scrutiny of public bodies) shifted considerably over time. During my PhD, I had the unique opportunity to undertake a placement inside the Committee Office of the UK House of Commons, which significantly changed (and improved) the trajectory of my research. In the end, my PhD examined how MPs and officials interpret the concept of ‘parliamentary scrutiny’, and how their everyday behaviours affect scrutiny of government. My PhD was completed in August 2016, and awarded the Andrew Gamble Prize for an Outstanding Thesis (University of Sheffield) and nominated for the Sir Walter Bagehot Prize for the Best Thesis (Political Studies Association).

Following my PhD, I was appointed Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in British Politics at the University of Edinburgh. At Edinburgh, I continued with my research, publishing across academic journals and completing my first monograph, Dramas at Westminster. I also took on the role of Co-Convener for the Political Studies Association’s Parliaments Group, which I held between 2017 and 2020. As Co-Convener, I co-ordinated and supported the UK community of experts on parliaments, including through the organisation of an annual conference on parliamentary research.

Throughout my career, I have fostered links with a range of practitioners at the Scottish and UK parliaments, presenting research findings and submitting recommendations to committees. In doing so, I have become increasingly interested in how ‘knowledge’ and ‘evidence’ were used by policy-makers, especially in legislative settings. This is the current focus of my research.

Between 2019 and 2022, I was Co-Director of the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy at Edinburgh (SKAPE) and, between 2020 and 2022, Deputy Director of Research for my School, with responsibility for Knowledge Exchange and Impact. I am incredibly passionate about understanding the relationship between science, knowledge and policy, particularly with respect to parliaments in the UK and further afield, and making sure that academic research makes a contribution to policy and societal debates. This has led me to apply for a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship with the UK House of Commons, an opportunity that has allowed me to examine how evidence is gathered, analysed and used by select committees.

In spring 2023, I joined the Institute for Parliamentary Research in Berlin as a Research Fellow to expand the field of my research to German politics, examining how evidence is used in the Bundestag (and comparing it to the Scottish and UK contexts).