Alan Finlayson is Professor of Political and Social Theory at The University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, having previously taught in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University, and the Department of Politics and International Relations at Queen’s University Belfast. His research combines contributions to the development of democratic political and cultural theory with the theoretical and historical analysis and interpretation of the ideologies that shape British political culture, political economy and ‘governmentality’. As part of this work he has developed particular expertise in the theoretical and practical study of political rhetoric, a field which – in the form of Rhetorical Political Analysis – he has done much to establish within British Political Studies. In this context he oversees the website British Political Speech.
Prof. Finlayson was PI on the AHRC funded research project Political Ideology, Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the ‘Alt-Right’ from 2018-2021. This three-year research project examined how digital platform technologies are transforming the ways in which political ideas are formed and circulated and how this affects our relationship with our political beliefs and with their argumentative expression. He is currently PI on the AHRC funded research project Our Subversive Voice? The history and politics of English protest music. This is an investigation into the long history of songs as a means of political expression, and of their rhetorical style and form.
Alan is Chair of the Editorial Board of Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy; co-editor of the Palgrave book series Rhetoric, Politics and Society; co-founder of the Rhetoric and Politics Group of the UK Political Studies Association and on the board of the Rhetoric Society of Europe. He has contributed political commentary and analysis for print, broadcast and online media including The Guardian, Open Democracy and The London Review of Books.