Nicholas Scott

I am a Canadian-born dual citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom. I obtained my BAH and MA in Political Studies from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. My academic background is in international relations and comparative politics. I am primarily a qualitative researcher, although I explore and utilise mixed-methods research methodologies as well. I am a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) at King’s College London. Please feel free to contact me if you have any interest or questions about my research. 

Please note, I will be out of office conducting fieldwork throughout England from February-June 2023, subject to extension if needed. For more information on my research, please visit: http://identities-in-england-study.org.uk/

Research

• British Politics
• English Politics
• The EU
• European Politics
• Euroscepticism
• Identity
• Nationalism
• Devolution

Teaching

Introduction to International Politics – 5SSPP237

PhD research

My research is situated within the related fields of nationalism studies and European studies and seeks to answer the question as to what constitutes European identity. When discussing whether or not a state is European, the dividing line is routinely drawn at EU membership. What is European versus the ‘other’ is essentially demarcated by membership of the EU. This conflated and exclusionary understanding of Europeanness is termed EUropeanness or EUropean identity. While it may be argued that membership of the EU is a defining characteristic of a state’s European identity, actors at the substate level, such as politicians and figures in social movements, can (and do) invoke notions of a European identity irrespective of their state’s membership of the EU. I seek to investigate how European identity is being rearticulated and redefined by political and social actors in post-Brexit England; these actors continue to invoke notions and/or characteristics of Europeanness despite their country having left the EU. Since 1945, Britain has assumed the role of the ‘reluctant European’ with regards to unification. I make the claim that Brexit has left a vacuum of opportunity for definitions of Europeanness and European identity to be rearticulated and redefined, given the UK is no longer a member of the EU – whether this phenomenon should be viewed as a positive or negative byproduct of Brexit is up for debate.

Supervisors

Professor Adam Fagan and Dr Russell Foster