Globalisation: Politics, Conflict and Human Rights MA (PGCert PGDip)

Dr Paul Hopper, Senior lecturer

Dr Paul Hopper has been a member of staff at the University of Brighton since the early 1990s, before which he taught sociology and social and political philosophy at the University of Sussex. He leads the Globalisation, Politics and Culture MA and the Globalisation, Politics and Culture BA(Hons), and has developed option modules such as Race and Racism and the Sociology of Globalisation for undergraduate programmes.

Paul's research interests revolve around globalisation, especially in relation to: culture, communication and identity; global movements and networks; global governance; development; and the environment. He is concerned with how globalising processes are both informing and being informed by these areas. His work seeks to move beyond general and abstract accounts of this subject, focusing instead upon how globalising processes are interpreted and experienced within specific contexts.

In substantiating this position, Paul has undertaken a series of case studies as part of his research, ranging from examining how globalisation has informed debates within the Islamic world to how the Chinese party-state has for reasons of political expediency used economic globalisation but resisted its cultural and political dimensions. This research has been published in several books, including Rebuilding Communities in an Age of Individualism (Ashgate, 2003), Living with Globalization (Berg, 2006), Understanding Cultural Globalization (Polity, 2007), Understanding Development (Polity, 2012) and Understanding Global Environmental Politics (Polity, 2009).

Dr Robin Dunford, Course leader 

Dr Robin Dunford has been a member of staff at the University of Brighton since 2014, before which he taught politics at the University of Exeter and an MA in Human Rights at the University of Leicester. He leads the Globalisation, Politics and Conflict MA and the Globalisation: Politics History and Culture BA (Hons). He has a wide range of teaching expertise, with specialist areas including human rights, contemporary conflict and insecurity, global ethics, and the global politics of food and agriculture.

Robin’s research has focused on transnational peasant resistance to land ‘grabbing’, with particular reference to activism around peasant’s rights and food sovereignty. He has written a book on The Politics of Transnational Peasant Struggle, and has had articles on the process of drafting a UN declaration on the rights of peasants and other people on rural areas published in top International Relations journals. 

His research also concerns the causes of conflict and insecurity, with particular reference to the implications that the multiple, complex, and globalised causes of conflict have for conflict avoidance on the one hand and normative and strategic justifications of international military intervention on the other.

Rosie Miller

"I chose the University of Brighton to study my undergraduate degree purely because of the course syllabus, which was hugely appealing to me. I then wanted to continue to study and be taught in the same way, so decided to do the MA.

"The course covers a wide range of topics; my favourites include global security, conflict resolution, energy security and human rights. The way in which the course is taught is hugely stimulating. The small seminar groups enable debate and close learning, while the student-lecturer contact time enables you to quickly see your tutor if you have any issues.

"The humanities building is situated in central Brighton, opposite the Pavilion, which is convenient to get to and not far from the train station. My plans when I finish the MA are to go travelling, and hopefully end up working in an NGO focusing on environmental policymaking."

Michal Pawlak

"I am a Polish student currently undertaking the Globalisation: Politics, Conflict and Human Rights MA. I have been studying at the University of Brighton for nearly four years.

"I can strongly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in the contemporary political deliberations that affect the world and our understanding of it. It covers a wide range of critical debates that question conventional perspectives on areas such as environmental politics, development and conflict, to name a few. The focus of this study moves beyond a single disciplinary approach by emphasising the complex and multifaceted nature of these issues and topics."