Subject overview

Centre for Social and Political Thought

The Centre is the organisational base for research associated with social and political thought. A major dimension of the Centre’s research is critical social theory. ‘Europeanness’ is an important part of its identity, as it is for the University of Sussex. The Centre is also the home of the European Journal of Social Theory. Currently one Jean Monnet Fellow is based in the Centre. 

At the heart of the Centre’s intellectual activity is the postgraduate/faculty research seminar in social and political thought, at which internal and visiting speakers present papers. All MA and research students are welcome. 

There is also a work-in-progress seminar run by research students, at which they present papers for discussion. We have other occasional seminar series and Studies in Social and Political Thought, our own in-house journal, is published by a group of students and faculty. It offers an ideal opportunity for our students to publish their work. 

The Centre brings together research students and faculty at Sussex who are interested in the interactions between the explanatory, normative and ideological dimensions of social and political thought. The Centre has sponsored conferences on The Future of Critical Social Theory, Social Democracy: Current Ideological Directions, Environmentalism and Critical Realism, Reconstructing Human Rights, and Europe since 1989. Members have also organised conferences on The Good Life, The Direction of Contemporary Capitalism, Hegel: History and Politics, and The Life and Work of Edward Said, as well as graduate conferences every year since 2002. 

The Centre has special links with the Social Theory Centre at the University of Warwick, with which it organised a major series of seminars on Social Theory and Major Social Transformations and with which it jointly publishes the journal Papers in Social Theory. Faculty have links with a variety of scholars in Europe and North America and often invite colleagues to give papers at Sussex.

Programmes

• PhD in Social and Political Thought
• MPhil in Social and Political Thought

Research degrees may be pursued on a full-time or a part-time basis and take the form of an MPhil or a PhD. There is wide-ranging supervisory expertise available from faculty in the fields of politics, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, international relations, and history. We have a large and active body of research students from a variety of intellectual and international backgrounds. 

Coursework

Although our MPhil and PhD degrees consist primarily of independent directed research, students often participate formally or informally in MA modules. If you do not already have a relevant MA or equivalent, we may require you to take one or more MA modules in your first year. We offer a wide range of research training modules for students. If you have not completed comparable research training elsewhere, you will be required to take some of these modules. 

Recent and current thesis titles 

Adorno and film 

Arendt and Foucault 

Benjamin and Kafka 

Benjamin’s materialism 

Bureaucratisation and reformism in social democracy 

Collective intentionality 

Communitarianism in current political discourse 

Darwinism, homosexuality and the left 

Gender and the social construction of whiteness 

Habermas and religion 

Hegel on freedom 

Intellectual origins of New Labour 

Justice, community and singularity 

Justice, difference and feminism 

Marcuse and the new social movements 

New forms of participatory democracy 

Paternalistic legislation 

Regional modernities: UK and Denmark 

Sartre and political philosophy 

The concept of fetishism 

Trotsky and the state 

Entry requirements

MPhil in Social and Political Thought

UK entrance requirements

A Masters degree, or its equivalent, in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Social and Political Thought

UK entrance requirements

A Masters degree, or its equivalent, in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Related subjects

• Philosophy
• Sociology

Fees and funding

Fees

MPhil in Social and Political Thought

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Social and Political Thought

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Research interests are briefly described below.  For more detailed information, visit the Centre for Social and Political Thought. 

The main research areas of our faculty include: 

• Marx, Hegel, normative foundations of social criticism, recognition theory 
• intellectual history, philosophy of history, historiography 
• Italian political theory and history, history of the left 
• German social theory, critical social theory 
• Habermas, Adorno, discourse ethics, moral theory 
• poststructuralism 
• philosophy of social science 
• civil society and contemporary politics 
• cosmopolitan theory, globalisation 
• cultural and historical sociology of modernity 
• the European cultural and political heritage. 

Dr Andrew Chitty Political and legal philosophy, Hegel, German Idealism, Marx. 

Professor Gerard Delanty Social and political theory, philosophy of social science, identity. 

Dr Gordon Finlayson German Idealism, 20th-century German philosophy, the Frankfurt School, Adorno, Horkheimer, Habermas. 

Professor Robert Iliffe The history of science and the Newton Project. 

Dr Tarik Kochi International security; war, terror and violence; legal and political theory. 

Dr Darrow Schecter Gramsci, industrial democracy, theories of socialism, civil society. 

Dr Kenneth Veitch Critical and theoretical approaches to medical law, and health. 

Careers and perspectives

Many of our graduates have gone on to successful careers in research and teaching, the media, and non-governmental organisations. Over the last 30 years, a substantial number of leading academics in the UK and elsewhere have graduated from our research degrees. 

School and contacts