Currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Essex, I previously held lectureships at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Manchester. Across these posts I have led undergraduate and postgraduate modules, and supervised undergraduate dissertations. At Queen Mary I convened the undergraduate module Making Thatcher’s Britain and delivered lectures on modern British political and social history. At Manchester I lectured on modern European political economy, capitalism, and political institutions.

During my doctoral studies at the University of Manchester I also taught research methods at Alliance Manchester Business School and led undergraduate seminars on modern European history, political thought, and the history of capitalism.

Between these posts I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Essex, working on the Leverhulme Trust funded interdisciplinary Competition and Competitiveness project. It examined how ideas about competition have shaped modern economic thought and policy. My work within the project focused on the history of political economy and involved organising workshops and seminars as well as producing peer-reviewed research on the intellectual and institutional foundations of modern capitalism.

Before returning to academia I worked in public policy and government, serving as a Senior Policy Officer at Manchester City Council and later as a Parliamentary Researcher and Adviser in the UK Parliament.

I completed my PhD in history at the University of Manchester and hold a Cultural History MA from the University of Manchester and a BA in History from the University of Cambridge.

A full academic CV can be downloaded here

I can be contacted at sean.irving@essex.ac.uk

Background Image: Theo van Doesburg, Sphere (1916)