Student Profile

Christopher Hobson BA, MA (The University of Melbourne)

Christopher commenced a PhD in the Department in 2005 and will be submitting in March 2009. His thesis addresses the issue of how 'democracy' has changed in relation to what it means to be a legitimate state. Rather than uncritically accepting the current ascendancy of 'democracy', his work sees this positioning as a result of a unique set of historically contingent processes. In so doing, the thesis seeks to explore the various meanings and political struggles that have marked the history of democracy in modern international relations. At a time when it is one of the most central ideas to all forms of politics, his work seeks to historicise 'democracy' and consider the different ways this powerful idea has been used.

Christopher has tutored at an undergraduate level at The University of Melbourne, and has taught and tutored at a postgraduate level at the Australian National University. During his candidature, he has presented papers in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the US. Christopher has also been a visitor at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen (September 2006) and the Department of International Politics, The University of Wales, Aberystwyth (September 2006-March 2007). In September 2008, Christopher moved to the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, to take a four-year postdoctoral fellowship as part of an ERC-funded project, 'Political Economies of Democratisation'.

Current research interests centre primarily on the various ways in which democracy intersects with world politics: democratisation, democracy promotion as a foreign policy tool, the democratic peace thesis, and democracy as a standard of legitimate statehood. Broader areas of interest include international political theory and conceptual history. Christopher has published in the Melbourne Journal of Politics, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Global Society, European Journal of Political Theory and has an article forthcoming in a Millenium special issue on 'Interrogating Democracy in International Relations'.

Email: cth@aber.ac.uk