Professor Tony Heron

Profile

Biography

I joined the Department as Professor of International Political Economy in 2012 and was appointed Head of Department in 2023. I previously taught at the University of Sheffield between 2002 and 2012. In 2019-20, I was one of 12 N8 Agri-Food (N8AF) Chairs, providing strategic leadership to catalyse interdisciplinary and collaborative food systems research across the N8 universities (Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield and York). I have held visiting appointments at several overseas universities, including the University of the West Indies, Australian National University; the University of the South Pacific, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Teaching

Undergraduate

My teaching reflects a long-standing interest in issues of political economy, especially in relation to trade, development, agriculture/food, and the environment. My approach to teaching is designed to encourage students to approach economic questions as political scientists—that is, asking who gets what, when, and how in international economic relations. More specifically, the focus is on the different ways in which political institutions—and the historical structures, power relations, ideas, and economic interests that underpin them—shape distributive outcomes.

My modules are based on a variety of different methods of teaching delivery, including both tutor- and student-centred approaches (e.g., lectures, oral presentations, group work, problem-based assignments, plenary debate, and discussion). The key objective is to equip students with the conceptual and analytical skills to understand and critically evaluate both theoretical arguments and substantive policy questions. I strive to make the content of my modules both relevant and up-to-date.

In the 2026–27 academic year, I will be teaching Global Trade Politics (MA).

Research

Overview

My research interests include global food systems, sustainability governance, global value chains, the political economy of the UK’s independent trade policy, and agricultural reform in the context of Brexit. I am the author of three books and numerous articles and book chapters on various aspects of trade and development, as well as economic and environmental governance. Since 2016, I have been directly involved, either as a principal or co-investigator, in over £4 million of research grants from funders including the ESRC, BBSRC, EU Horizon 2020, British Academy, Leverhulme, and Nuffield.

Supervision

I have supervised 19 PhD students to completion on a wide variety of topics. I am currently supervising the following students:

• Lisa Newsome: Radical development theory and practice in the Commonwealth Caribbean
• Marco Franzoi: Global fisheries and biodiversity
• Segun Olesugun: Transboundary resource governance in the Lake Chad Basin
• Rong Poo: Gender mainstreaming and climate-related finance in small island developing states
• Ziyu Yan: Global food security and import-dependent countries
• Tonhua Li: US–China relations, populism, and trade

External activities

Overview

Between 2020 and 2022, I served as a Parliamentary Academic Fellow to the House of Commons International Trade Committee (now the Business and Trade Committee), providing expert advice to the ITC during the crucial early Brexit period when the Government negotiated and signed a whole raft of free-trade agreements. In 2021, I was a member of the UK Government Office for Science Commission for ‘Rebuilding Resilient Britain’ and a co-author of its final report. I have advised DEFRA, Co-op Food, the Food Standards Agency, and the World Bank Group, among others.

My work on soy was cited in the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, commissioned by the UK Treasury. My research has also featured in Bloomberg, The Independent, The i, Press Association, The Times, and the Yorkshire Post. 

I am also a regular contributor to the public debate on international trade, food, and the environment. I have published numerous recent commentary and opinion pieces in outlets including Food Matters Live, The Conversation, UK in a Changing Europe, LSE Brexit Blog, Yorkshire Post, SPERI, and Nature Food. I serve on the External Advisory Board of the UK in a Changing Europe think tank and co-edit the journal New Political Economy.