Oxford Constitution Hub launches
A new project aimed at addressing some of the greatest global challenges–from globalisation to democratic decay–has launched.
The Constitution Hub will catalyse and communicate Oxford’s global constitutional expertise in Politics, Law, Government, and History.
The PI for the project is Petra Schleiter–Joint Head of DPIR and Professor of Comparative Politics and Tutorial Fellow–and the co-investigator is Nick Barber, Professor of Constitutional Law and Theory.
The Hub was competitively selected for funding by the Social Sciences Division and John Fell Fund.
At a time of unprecedented constitutional challenges and turbulence: around the world, globalisation, populism, environmental degradation, inequality, democratic decay and authoritarian backsliding are exposing the tensions in the constitutional structures of democratic states.
The Constitution Hub musters the exceptional breadth and depth of Oxford’s expertise across multiple disciplines to analyse these challenges, create new capacity to seize inter-disciplinary research opportunities, secure grants, leverage policy impact, and broaden public engagement.
The Hub will bring together scholars and policy-makers to research the global challenges faced by constitutional democracy. It will provide a forum through which Oxford’s research can be communicated beyond the academy.
The Hub anticipates key outputs to include a podcast, regularly scheduled short lectures and seminar series. The events will launch in Hilary Term - please check back for updates.
In the medium term, the Hub will lay the foundations for the construction of an Oxford Constitution Centre - a global centre of excellence in constitution studies.
“Until now, Oxford's expertise in the study of constitutions has been dispersed across a range of Faculties and Institutions,” said Nick.
“The Oxford Constitution Hub will provide a forum within which these strengths will be combined, and through which Oxford's academics will engage with policy-makers and the wider public.
“We are excited to take part in this project, which will build on and enhance Oxford's existing capacities in this area, and will enable us to showcase our research.”
