Professor John Gaffney

Profile

John Gaffney started his undergraduate studies at 25 as a mature student. In 1978 he was awarded a first class honours degree in French and European Studies at the University of Sussex. In 1984, he was awarded a DPhil in Comparative Politics.

He was appointed as a Lecturer at Aston in 1984, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1989, and Reader in 1991, and was the founding Director, in 1992, of Aston's Institute for the Study of Language and Society. In 1995 he left Aston to take up the post of Chair of French and European Politics at Keele University. He made a welcome return here as Professor of French Government and has served as Head of French Studies, and Head of Politics and Modern History.

Professor John Gaffney is author of The French Left and the Fifth Republic, The Language of Political Leadership in Contemporary Britain, and Interpretations of Violence: The Handsworth Riots. He has also edited books on French and on European politics. He is currently finishing a monograph on the French Fifth Republic.

One of Professor Gaffney's main research areas is the nature of the relationship between language and politics, in particular the study of how political leaders use language to influence supporters and create allegiance and how to discourse and political their ‘performance’ can only be properly understood in institutional and cultural contexts.

Qualifications

• BA French and European Studies (First Class Hons), Sussex University

• MA Politics, Sussex University

• DPhil Politics, Sussex University

Teaching

• Debates and Controversies in British Politics

• European Cultures and Societies

• Political Leaders: Case Studies and Comparative Perspectives

• France Since the Revolution

• Contemporary French Politics

• Research Dissertations for both Politics and French

• MA Teaching and Phd Supervision

Research Interests

• Political culture

• Political rhetoric

• Political leadership

• European politics

• French politics

Responsibilities

• Senate

• School Learning and Teaching Strategy Group (chair)

• APRC

• School Research Committee

Membership in Professional Organisations

• American Political Science Association

• Political Studies Association

• University Association of Contemporary European Studies

• National Communication Association (USA)

• French Studies Association

• Association of University Professors and Heads of French (Vice-President)