Summary
Matt Beech is Reader in Politics and Director of the Centre for British Politics (@CBPhull). He is a political scientist and historian who teaches post-war British political history, government and the culture wars. Dr Beech is Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Institute of European Studies and the Centre for British Politics is partnered with UC Berkeley's Centre for British Studies. He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, Berkeley and Flinders. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
He currently leads three projects: Polarized Peoples: Examining the culture wars and how we can transcend them; The Idea of the Good Society: Essays in Honour of Raymond Plant (Oxford University Press) with Dr Kevin Hickson (Liverpool); Interpreting UK Legislatures (Journal of Legislative Studies) with Professor Mark Bevir (Berkeley).
He is the author or editor of 44 outputs on British Politics comprising books, peer-reviewed journal articles, edited volumes, special issues and book chapters. With Dr Simon Lee, he has edited six volumes on UK politics. His research papers have been published in the BJPIR, Parliamentary Affairs, West European Politics, Public Policy & Administration, British Politics, Political Studies Review, Policy Studies, Political Quarterly and Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique.
Dr Beech is Associate Member of the Centre de Recherches en Civilisation Britannique at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Heterodox Academy. He is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the American Political Science Association’s British Politics Group. He was a Thorneycroft Memorial Scholar at the University of Southampton, where he studied for his PhD under Professor the Lord Plant of Highfield.
He has spoken at events at the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Council of State Governments West, the Industry and Parliament Trust, the Social Market Foundation, the Danube Institute and the Fabian Society. He has had written evidence published by the House of Lords Select Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence, and by the Committee on Standards in Public Life report into donations and funding of British political parties.
Dr Beech provides expert analysis for the print media and has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Le Figaro, The Globe and Mail and Bloomberg News. He has been interviewed in broadcasts for CNBC, BBC World Service, Sky News, BBC Parliament, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5Live, and Radio France International.
He has over a decade of experience in Knowledge Exchange including public policy consultancy. He has worked with parliamentarians, think-tanks, trade unionists, businesses, local government officers and journalists.