Dr Charles Gray

Profile

I am a teaching fellow at the University of Leeds in the School of Politics and International Relations (POLIS). I first joined POLIS in 2018 as an MA International Relations student, and went on to conduct my PhD at Leeds from 2020-2026 (ESRC WRDTP funded 3+1 studentship, which included an MA in Social Research). Prior to my time at Leeds, I completed a BA in Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, during which I briefly lived in the United States as part of a study-abroad progamme in the state of New York.

I have had extensive experience teaching across mutiple undergraduate modules at Leeds, ranging from Theories of International Relations, Freedom Power and Resistance: An Introduction to Political Ideas, Nuclear Weapons and Global Politics, and British Politics, amongst others.

Responsibilities

• Module Leader, Global Security Challenges

Research interests

My primary research interest is the intensification and acceleration of global techno-capitalism, and its specific impact upon academic communities, namely those within the discipline of IR. My thesis – titled: ‘British IR in the Neoliberal University: How the Neoliberalisation of higher-education shapes the discipline of International Relations
(IR) in the United Kingdom’ – explored how Neoliberalism shapes the academic culture of IR in the UK through semi-structured interviews of UK-based IR scholars, drawing upon the works of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Mark Fisher to situate the Neoliberal governmentalisation of British academia.

My other research interests include:

• The disciplinary history of IR
• The sociology of knowledge production within/across IR
• Neoliberal governmentality
• Accelerationism; or, the impact of intensifying global techno-economic interactivity upon global politics
• Post-structuralist IR theory (with a particular interest in thinkers such as Paul Virilio and Nick Land, and the implications of their thought for the study of global politics)

Qualifications

• PhD Politics and International Studies (WRDPT; University of Leeds)
• MA Social Research (WRDTP; University of Leeds)
• MA International Relations (University of Leeds)
• BA Politics and International Relations (University of Kent)

Professional memberships

• Advance HE Associate Fellowship (D1)
• British International Studies Association
• European International Studies Association

Student education

Over the course of my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, I have come to realise just how deeply transformative my time at university was, and I have throughly enjoyed and valued the opportunities I have had to support others in their own journey through higher-education. My approach to teaching is to support and encourage students in developing their critical thinking skills, alongside supporting them in developing reflective thinking which is crucial not just for analysing arguments and ideas made by others, but for reflecting and building-upon one’s own position. Given the complex and multifacted nature of global politics, such skills are crucial for navigating (and continuiously improving upon one’s own navigation) through an ocean of competing ideas, claims, arguments, ideologies, and perspectives.