GCU academic joins global political experts on IPSA executive

An academic from GCU has been elected onto the executive committee of the International Political Studies Association.

Dr Umut Korkut, a reader at Glasgow School for Business and Society, joins leading experts from South America, Europe, and Asia on the committee and will play a key role in shaping the programme for the 2020 IPSA World Congress in Lisbon.

The results of the election were announced at the 2018 IPSA World Congress in Brisbane, Australia, last week.

Dr Korkut, who is GCU's principal investigator in a £3million study into the impact of the migrant crisis on Europe entitled RESPOND, will serve a two-year term on the committee.

He said: "I have an established research agenda, spanning a number of areas, including European and Turkish politics, migration and forced migration, and religion, gender and politics.

"As well as being involved in the programme committee for the 2020 World Congress, I will have responsibilities in Research Ethics, Equality and Diversity committees at IPSA."

GCU and the University of Cambridge are providing UK research for RESPOND, an EU-funded review of the migrant crisis, which will focus on border control, migration and integration and will involve 14 universities across the continent, as well as in Lebanon and Iraq.

Researchers from Glasgow will study how the language used in political speeches on immigration, and the resulting newspaper coverage, shapes public perception.

They will also travel to Turkey and Iraq to set up 'advice clinics' to ensure migrants and refugees have access to accurate information, as part of the three-year project.