Event Date: September 21, 2022 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm EST
Location: FSS4004

Presented by CIPS

Until the Brexit referendum, there was widespread doubt as to whether English nationalism existed at all, at least beyond a small fringe. Since then, it has come to be regarded an obvious explanation for the vote to Leave the European Union. Subsequent opinion polls have raised doubts about the extent of continuing English commitment to the Union of the United Kingdom itself. Yet even as Englishness is apparently reshaping Britain’s place in world and perhaps, ultimately, the state itself, it remains poorly understood. 

Building on his work with Prof. Ailsa Henderson (Edinburgh), Richard Wyn Jones draws on data from the Future of England Survey to discuss both the nature and impact of English nationalism. 

He argues that English nationalism is emphatically not a rejection of Britain and Britishness. Rather, English nationalism combines a sense of grievance about England’s place within the United Kingdom with a fierce commitment to a particular vision of Britain’s past, present, and future. Understanding its Janus-faced nature – both England and Britain – is key not only to understanding English nationalism, but also to understanding the ways in which it is transforming British politics.

Speaker:

Richard Wyn Jones is Professor of Welsh Politics and Director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. He has published extensively on Welsh and UK politics as well as nationalism and is considered one of the founders of Critical Security Studies.

Chair:

Michael Williams, the University Research Chair in Global Political Thought and Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa.