Michael is an Hourly Paid Lecturer in the Department of European and International Studies, which he joined as a PhD candidate in February 2022. He completed his PhD in September 2026 under the supervision of Dr Benedetta Voltolini and Dr Russell Foster, with a thesis examining how political myths have been used to legitimise the European Union in times of crisis. His research focuses more broadly on the intersection of political myths and narratives, EU legitimacy, and European identity.

Michael currently convenes the module European Identities and the EU (7AAON003) and has previously taught on The Integration of the European Union (5AAOB201). He has also been the PGR Student Engagement Co-ordinator for the School of Politics and Economics since August 2026. He received the Department’s Graduate Teaching Assistant Award in 2024 and the School’s Postgraduate Research Award in 2026.

Michael holds a BA in Politics and International Relations (2020) and an MA in Public Policy (2021) from the University of Warwick.

Office hours

Monday: 10.00 - 11.00, Bush House NW 5.27

Research interests

• Political myths and narratives
• EU legitimacy and discursive legitimation
• European identity
• European integration
• EU foreign policy

Teaching

• 5AAOB201: The Integration of the European Union
• 7AAON003: European Identities and the EU (module convenor)

PhD research

My research looks at how the myth of exceptionalism has been used by supranational EU elite actors to legitimise the EU in times of ‘crisis’. To address this puzzle, I conduct a discourse analysis of offical speaches of supranational EU elites during three ‘crises’: the Eurozone crisis, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Russian War in Ukraine. In doing so, develops an original conceptualisation of the 'myth of EU-ropean exceptionalism’. In doing so, this study will develop its own original conceptualisation of the 'myth of EU-ropean exceptionalism’, drawing from existing literature on political myths in EU politics and society. My research seeks to demonstrate that EU elites have been able to continuously adapt and draw from different aspects of the EU’s myth of exceptionalism in order to make sense of and provide meaning to successive crises. Furthermore, the myth of exceptionalism is used extensively in each crisis to legitimise both the EU's policy response and the continued existence of the European project as a whole. More broadly, my research seeks to emphasise the central role that the myth of exceptionalism plays in EU politics and highlight that this myth is one of the most powerful myths in world politics.

Supervisors

Dr Russell Foster and Dr Benedetta Voltolini