Peter Gardner

Research Database

Peter holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, an MPhil in Race, Ethnicity, Conflict from Trinity College Dublin, and a BA in Economic and Social Studies also from Trinity College Dublin. After completing his PhD, he worked for two years as a teaching fellow at the University of Aberdeen. At Aberdeen, he was a member of the Institute for Conflict, Transition, and Peace Research. In 2019, he joined the University of York as Lecturer in Sociology.

Peter's research is focused on political sociological aspects of postconflict states. He is especially interested in the role of peoplehood narratives, ethnopolitics, ethno-linguistic mobilisation, and symbolic contention in states experiencing or in the wake of civil war. His doctoral work focused on the Ulster-Scots movement in Northern Ireland. As well as being published in several journals, this research will be released in early 2020 as a monograph, entitled Ethnic Dignity and the Ulster-Scots Movement in Northern Ireland: Supremacy in Peril.

Currently, Peter is developing two research projects: (1) language politics in postconflict societies, and (2) symbols and symbolic objects in contentious politics.