Professor Karl Cordell

Emeritus Professor of Politics

Qualifications

• ONC in Public Administration; Kingston College of Further Education, 1975
• BSc Honours in Combined Studies; Politics (Major), Sociology (Minor), Upper Second Class, Plymouth Polytechnic, 1983
• PhD; ‘The Origins and Development of Deutschlandpolitik 1969-74’, Plymouth Polytechnic, 1988

Teaching interests

• Comparative European Politics
• Ethnopolitics in Europe

Research interests

• Ethnic Politics
• The Politics of Ethnicity in East-Central Europe
• German Politics
• Polish Politics
• German-Polish Relations

Other research

• 1994 Research Project :‘The Evangelical Church in Leipzig in the Wake of German Unification’
• 1995 Research Project : ‘The Politics of Identity in Upper Silesia ’, Poland
• 1997 Leverhulme funded Research Project : ‘The Politics of Ethnicity in Poland and The European Union’.
• 2003 Research Project: 'The German Question Continued? Czech-German, Polish-German Relations Since 1990'.

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

• Director of Studies of Sandra Barkhof’s doctoral thesis: ‘European Integration and the Construction of a Common European Identity. University of Plymouth, 1999-2007
• Supervisor of Ian Murphy’s doctoral thesis: ‘An Analysis of the Potential for the use of Private Military and Security Companies in Conflict Handling and Peacebuilding’, 2006-2011
• Director of Studies of Bartosz Lyszkewicz’ doctoral thesis: ‘Nation Building and Nationalism in Poland Since 1918’: 2010-14
• Director of Studies of Adina Huma’s doctoral thesis: ‘Reproducing ‘geopolitics’ – national identity representations of foreign affairs in Moldova, 2010-15
• Director of Studies of Aneta Brockhill’s doctoral thesis: How does Structural Violence Affect Israeli-Palestinian Relations: the Barrier; a Case Study, 2011-2017
• Director of Studies of Annabelle Wolff’s doctoral thesis: The British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party: Changing Attitudes Towards the Welfare State, 2010-2017

Grants & contracts

Research Funding Obtained

In March 1994 the University of Plymouth awarded me QR funding of £3,206 to commence my research project ‘The Evangelical Church in Leipzig in the Wake of German Unification’

In August 1994 in order to enable me to conduct the research project ‘The Politics of Identity in Upper Silesia’, to be conducted over a period of two years, The University of Plymouth awarded me QR funding to the sum of £11,802

In January 1997 in order to enable me to undertake a programme of lectures entitled ‘Federalism and Federation in Western Europe’, at the University of Wroclaw Poland, I was allocated the sum of £468 from the relevant element of the University of Plymouth’s Socrates fund allocation

In July 1997 The Leverhulme Trust awarded me a research grant totalling £38,000 for the research project ‘The Politics of Ethnicity in Poland and The European Union’, to be conducted over a period of two years and three months

In March 2003 the British Academy awarded me the sum of £17,000 to aid in the conducting of the research project ‘’The German Question Continued? Czech-German, Polish-German Relations Since 1990, to be conducted over a two year period.

Reports & invited lectures

Guest Speaker at the inaugural symposium : Religion, Repression, Revolution: The Churches in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union Before and During the Upheavals of 1989-1991, Nanovic Institute, The University of Notre Dame, USA, 222 March, 2002.

Keynote Speaker, Reconciliation is what the State makes of it: Germany’s Relations with the Czech Republic and Poland in Comparative Perspective, at The Centre for Ethno-Political Studies (EXCEPS), University of Exeter Postgraduate Conference, 21 May, 2011.

Keynote Speaker, Germany as a Kin—State: The Institute for Hungarian Communities Abroad (NPKI) and the European Studies Centre of the University of Szeged Conference on Dual Citizenship and External Vote, Budapest, 26-28 September, 2012

Guest Speaker: Ethnically Divided Societies: Consocationalism as Common Sense? International IDEA, Stockholm, 6 December 2013.

Keynote Speaker: Germany and Poland: Strangers on a Train or Participants of a Common Destiny? At the conference: Nationalism and State Consolidation in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 15-16 May 2014

Guest Speaker: Consocational Solutions and Fractured “Nations”, Kingston University, 30 October 2014.

Guest Speaker: Germany and Poland: Strangers on a Train or Participants of a Common Destiny? Christ Church University, Kent, 25 November 2014.

Germany as a Kin-State Post 1949: Changing Perspectives, University of Glasgow, 5 February 2015.

Keynote Speaker, Polish-German Reconciliation: Lessons for Ukraine, at the European Centre for Minority Issues Summer School, Lwow, 28-30 August, 2016

Keynote Speaker, National Minorities in Post-Communist Europe: Avenues of Research, ‘The Promotion of National Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st Centuries’. Office of the Saxony Provincial Administration, 9-11 November, 2016.

Keynote Speaker: Kaczynski, Farage and Orban: Populism and the Future of Europe, at the 'Democratic Recession and Europe in Flux: Everyday Perspectives Workshop, Canterbury Christ Church University, 20-21 September 2017.

Guest Speaker: Migration, Minority Rights and Nationalism in (Post-Communist) Europe, Presentation at the United State Department of State, Washington DC, 24 May 2017.

Guest Speaker: Ethnopolitical Conflict and Secession, Guest lecture, The University of Exeter (Penrhyn Campus), 30 January 2018.

 Keynote speaker at the Poland’s Kin-State Policies: Poland's Kin-State Policies: Some Observations, Opportunities and Challenges Conference, University of Warsaw, 23-25 May, 2019.

 Keynote Speaker at the post-1989 Springtime of National Minorities Conference,: The Future of Europe's Minority Rights Regime: Some Observations, Central European University, Budapest, 6-7 June 2019.

Conferences organised

 Co-Convenor of the Joint Civil Wars & Ethnopolitics Conference: New Perspectives on Conflict and Security: Understanding Civil War and Intrastate Conflict, University of Birmingham, 11-12 July 2011

Co-Convenor of the Joint Civil Wars & Ethnopolitics Conference: Civil War and the State Building Challenge, University of Birmingham 17-18 September 2012

Co-convenor of the Conflict Research Society Annual conference, University of Birmingham, 20-21 September 2018.

Other academic activities

Conference and Occasional Papers

Chair of ‘The Future of the European Nation-State’ workshop at The Fourth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, The University of Graz, 11-14 August, 1994.

Co-chair of the University of Keele Research Symposium: Intellectuals, Churches and the Transformation of East Germany, 15 October 1995

Convenor and Chair of the panels: Ethnicity; Concept and Meaning and Ethnic Minorities; Portrayals and Illustrations at the annual PSA conference at the University of Glasgow, 8-10 April, 1996

Co-Chair of the International Conference on the Constitutional Relationship of Ethnic Relations in Ljubljana, 5-7 March, 1996

Founder-convenor of the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Ethnic Minority Politics, March 1995-July 1997.

Co-convenor of the PSA specialist group on Ethnic Politics (with Stefan Wolff), June 2000 to date

Co-editor, (with Stefan Wolff) The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, the on line journal of the PSA Ethnic Politics Group, December 2000-2005.

Co-editor, Ethnic Politics Research Papers (with Stefan Wolff), Ethnic Politics Research Papers, Occasional Papers published by the PSA Ethnic Politics Group, December 2000 to date

Convenor and Co-Chair of the panel: Civil Society; Democracy, Citizenship and Minorities for the Ethnic Minority Politics Group, at the Political Studies Association annual conference, at the University of Jordanstown, Belfast, 14-16 April, 1997

Convenor and Conference Chair: Ethnicity and Democratisation in The New Europe of the Political Studies Association Ethnic Minority Politics Group at the University of Plymouth, 7-9 July, 1996

Discussant of the panel: Constitutional and Electoral Engineering as Methods of Conflict Management in Ethnically Divided Societies, at the Political Studies Association annual conference, at the London School of Economics, 10-14 April, 2000

Convenor and co-chair of the panel: Post-conflict Reconstruction: Comparative Perspectives on the Balkans and Southeast Asia at the Political Studies Association annual conference, the University of Manchester, 12-16 April 2001

Convenor and Co-Chair of the panels: Peace-Building and Reconstruction After ethnic Conflict and Responses to Ethnic Conflict: from Prevention to Intervention, American Political Science Annual Conference, San Francisco, 30 August 2001-2 September 2001

Convenor and Co-Chair of three panels on the Politics of Disputed Territories at the European Consortium of Political Research Conference, University of Kent, 6-10 September, 2001.

Panel Chair of the panels: Forced Migration in Africa and Ethnic German Expellees and their Integration in the Federal Republic at conference on Forced Migration, Dept of European Studies, University of Bath, 13-16 September, 2002.

Convenor and Co-Chair of the roundtable: Governing Ethnically Divided Societies, the panel Diaspora Politics, and the panel Structure & Agency in Conflict Regulation, at the Political Studies Association Conference, University of Leicester, 15-17 April, 2003.

Convenor and Chair of the panel: German-Czech, German-Polish Relations in the Twenty-First Century, a Comparison, at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, University of Marburg, 18-21 September, 2003.

Convenor and Co-Chair of the section: German-Czech, German-Polish Relations in the twenty-first century, a Comparison, at the European Consortium of Political Research Conference, University of Marburg, 18-21 September, 2003.

 Convenor and Co-Chair of the panel: Ethnopolitics in Europe: Past,   Present and Future Trends at the Political Studies Association Conference, University of Leeds, 5-7 April, 2005.

 Chair of the Conceptualizing Security Panel at the European    Consortium for Political Research Conference, Budapest, 8-11    September, 2005.

 Chair of the Globalization, Empire and Security Panel at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Budapest, 8-11  September, 2005.

 Discussant at the conference: Much ado about nothing? The European Neighbourhood Policy since 2003 University of Nottingham, 25-26 October 2007.

 Chair of the panel: Lessons from the EU’s conflict resolution in the Balkans (I): A primus inter pares? at the University of Bath, 13 November 2009

 Discussant of the European Union as a Global Conflict Manager (2) Panel at the International Studies Association Conference, New York, 14-19 February, 2009

 Discussant of the Migration and Refugees Panel at the International Studies Association Conference, New York, 14-19 February, 2009

 Chair of the Secessionist Moment: Kosovo and the Future of Self-Determination panel, Association for the Study of Nationalities Conference, New York, 22-25 April, 2009

 Chair of the Panel Ethnic Radicalisation at the Radicalization in Western Societies,: Preventing Homegrown Terrorism Conference, University of Tübingen 7-9 September, 2010

 Discussant at the Panel: Power Sharing: Theory and Practice, Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, New York, 14-16 April 2011

 Discussant at the Panel: Non-Territorial Autonomy: Interpretations and Modes of Practical Application Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, New York, 14-16 April 2011

 Co-Convenor and co-chair of the panels: Managing Ethnic Conflict: Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives on Diplomatic and Military Strategies, Political Studies Association Annual Conference, London, 18-22 April 2011

 Discussant and Presenter (on the role of the Landsmannschaften in German-Polish relations) at the research seminar: “German-Polish relations in the 21st century” University of Birmingham 13 March 2012.

Discussant at the panel: The Regional Dynamics of State Fragility: Causes, Consequences and Responses, Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, NYC, 18-20 April

September 2013

 “Special Status: Can the Moldovan-Transnistrian Conundrum be Resolved by Consociational Democracy?” (with Stefan Wolff), University of Uppsala, 3 December 2013.

 Discussant at the book panel: Book Panel on Montserrat Guibernau’s Belonging: Solidarity and Division in Modern Societies Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, NYC, 24-26 April 2014.

 Convenor of the Roundtable: Israel and the Palestinians: Power-Sharing or Partition as Options for Peace, Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, NYC, 24-26 April 2014.

Participant in the Research Symposium: Self-Determination in the early 21st Century A Double Edged Concept, Princeton University, 27-29 April 2014.

Participant in the Roundtable: “Winds of Change: Europe and 25 Years of Transformation from Communism”, Queen’s University, Belfast, 6 November 2014.

Discussant in the Panel: Self-Determination in the Twentieth Century::Association of the Study of Nationalities Annual Conference, Columbia University, NYC, 23-25 April 2015.

 Chair of the Roundtable: Self-Determination: The Evolution of a Double-Edged Concept, Association of the Study of Nationalities, Annual Conference, Columbia University, NYC, 23-25 April 2015.

Participant in the Research Symposium: Whither Self-determination? Princeton University, 26 April 2015.

Participant in the Workshop: Shared Societies, -Approaches to Minority Related Issues in Europe and Israel, Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin, 26-29 September, 2016

 Participant in the workshop: Journal Editors Discuss Federalism and Nationalism, Canadian Political Science association Annual Conference, Ryerson University, Toronto, 30 May-1 June 2017

Discussant of the Panel: Current Crises in Europe: A Continent in Flux: at the 'Democratic Recession and Europe in Flux: Everyday Perspectives Workshop, Canterbury Christ Church University, 20-21 September 2017

Non-Territorial Autonomy, contribution to the 50 Shades of Federalism Project, Canterbury Christ Church University;http://50shaesoffederalism.com/, August 2017

A. Brockhill & K. Cordell: the Violence of Culture: the Legitimation of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine: Presented at the British Society for Middle East Studies Annual Conference, King's College London, 28 June, 2018.

K. Cordell, Co-convenor of the Conflict Research Society Annual conference, University of Birmingham, 20-21 September 2018.

K. Cordell, Keynote speaker at the Poland’s Kin-State Policies: Poland's Kin-State Policies: Some Observations, Opportunities and Challenges Conference, University of Warsaw, 23-25 May, 2019.

K. Cordell Keynote Speaker at the post-1989 Springtime of National Minorities Conference: The Future of Europe's Minority Rights Regime: Some Observations, Central European University, Budapest, 6-7 June 2019.

K. Cordell, Chair of The University of Plymouth Politics & International Relations Teaching Group workshop on Populism, Plymouth, 20 October 2019.

 K. Cordell, Partisan Dealignment, Brexit and the Rise of Populism, Guest Lecture, University of Dundee, 13 November, 2019.

 K. Cordell, Poland and the Polonia: Two Contrasting Case Studies, Integration in a Transnational World: Poland, Scotland and Polish Communities Abroad, University of Glasgow, 14 November 2019.

Additional information

K Cordell: ‘German Political Cultures, Continuity and Change’: Departmental Occasional Paper, Plymouth Polytechnic, 1987.

K Cordell: ‘Coming to Terms with Europe; The SPD in transition 1945-1957’. The European Unity in Context Conference, The University of Hull, September, 1990.

K Cordell: ‘Nation-Building in the GDR; The Failure of the SED’: The Annual European Consortium for Political Research Conference, The University of Essex, April, 1991

K Cordell: ‘Germany in Flux’: The Third Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, The University of Aalborg, August, 1992.

K Cordell: ‘The Re-awakening of the German National Right’: Research Seminar Paper at The University of Keele, February, 1993.

K Cordell: British Perspectives on German Unification: The Colloquium: Church-State-Society-Opposition in the GDR, The University of Leipzig, June, 1993.

K Cordell: The Churches in Leipzig and The Politics of Opposition; At the first Symposium, of the Everyday Life in Leipzig Research Consortium, The University of Keele, December, 1993.

K Cordell: Coming to Terms With Die Wende: The Churches in Leipzig Today: The Second Symposium of the Everyday Life in Leipzig Research Consortium, The University of Leipzig, March, 1994.

K Cordell: ‘European Union and the Nation State: The Politics of Hope Encounters the Politics of Experience’: The Fourth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, The University of Graz, August, 1994.

K Cordell, T Sullivan: ‘Upper Silesia: From Conflict to Co-operation’: The Political Studies Annual Conference, University of York, April, 1995

K Cordell: ‘Retreat From Ethnicity:? Upper Silesia and Polish-German Relations’: Plymouth, Plymouth International Papers No. 2, April, 1995.

K Cordell: ‘Minority Rights and the Creation of a Civic Culture: The Case of Upper Silesia’: The Second Pan-European Conference in International Relations; National Foundation of Political Science, Paris, September, 1995.

K Cordell: ‘Nation and Citizenship in Upper Silesia’: The International Conference on the Constitutional Relationship of Ethnic Relations; The University of Ljubljana, March, 1996.

K Cordell: ‘Constitutional Protection, Education and the Preservation of Identity: The German Minority in Poland Today’: Conference on The Regulation and Monitoring of Ethnic Relations and Conflict, The Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia, November, 1997.

K Cordell: ‘The Politics of the Re-organisation of Regional and Local Government in Poland: the Case of Upper Silesia’, The Annual European Consortium for Political Research Conference, The University of Mannheim, March, 1998.

K. Cordell: ‘The Declining Relevance of the German Minority in Upper Silesia’, Presented at the Association for the Study of Nationalities Special Conference, Forli, Italy, 4-9 June, 2002

K. Cordell: The Creation of a ‘Multicultural Estonia’ and the Decline and Disappearance of the last of the Baltic Germans. Presented at the International Conference ‘Multicultural Estonia’. The Integration Foundation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia. Tallinn, 24-25 October, 2002

K. Cordell: German-Polish Relations: Continuity and Change. Presented in the panel German-Czech, German-Polish Relations in the Twenty-First Century, a Comparison, at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, University of Marburg, 18-21 September, 2003.

 K. Cordell: Only the Stones Remain. The Vanished Germans of Estonia and Latvia: Presented at ‘The Baltic States: New Europe or Old’ Conference, The University of Glasgow, 22-23 January 2004.

 K. Cordell: ‘Self Determination, Conflict Resolution and Civil Society in the wake of 11, September, 2001: the Case of Angola’, Presented at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Budapest, 8-11 September, 2005.

 K. Cordell: ‘Ethnicity and European Politics’, Presented at The Ethnicity Research Symposium, University of the West of England, 16 January 2006

 K. Cordell & S. Wolff: ‘Germany as a kin-state: the development and implementation of a norm-consistent foreign policy towards Central and Eastern Europe’, Presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, New York City, 15-19 April, 2006

 K. Cordell, Klose, Poldolski and Trochowski: Born in Poland, but Playing and Scoring for Germany, BMW Center for German and European Studies, University of Georgetown Working Paper, April 2009

 K. Cordell & S. Wolff, Imagined legacies: Memory and power-sharing in Opole Silesia, Presented at the panel: The Role of Memory and History in the Shaping of State Strategies for Managing Minority Nationalism in Post-Communist Europe, 15th ASN World Convention, Columbia University, New York City, 15-17 April 2010

 K. Cordell, Coming to Terms with the Past: The Role of Memory in German-Polish-Relations German Diaspora Workshop at Durham University, 22-3 June 2012

K. Cordell & S. Wolff, ‘Special Status: Can the Moldovan-Transnistrian Conundrum be Resolved by Consociational Democracy?” Presented at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Uppsala, 3 December 2013

 In addition, I review books and articles for journals including Contemporary European Politics, Contemporary Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, The European Journal of Political Research, German Politics, The Journal of Regional and Federal Studies and Nationalities Papers, Nations and Nationalism, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Political Studies, Slavic Review, and review manuscripts and proposals for Polity, Routledge and Palgrave/Macmillan. I have also reviewed research proposals on behalf of the ESRC.

Since 2007 I have been a member of the editorial board of Nationalities Papers, the first house journal of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN)

Since 2005, I have co-edited the fully externally refereed academic journal Ethnopolitics, published by Taylor & Francis. Ethnopolitics, which is the successor to The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, is now the second house journal of ASN.

In 2007 Taylor & Francis commissioned the editors of Ethnopolitics and Nationalities Papers as general editors for a series on politics and ethnicity, which has resulted in a number of publications.

In 2009, I became Associate Editor of the fully externally refereed academic journal Civil Wars, published by Taylor & Francis

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