Jesse joined the Department of European & International Studies as a PhD candidate in September 2023, interested in the intersection of sexuality and immigration and how both public opinion and party appeals combine nativist attitudes with sexual-liberal positions, as well as how these ideological configurations compare across European Union member-states.

He is a recipient of the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (LISS-DTP) studentship in Politics, Public Policy & Governance, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He holds a BA in Political Studies from Queen Mary, University of London (2019 – 2022) and an MA in Human Rights Research (Law and Political Science) from the University of Manchester (2022-2023).

Entering education later in life, Jesse spent most of his early years working in business management for large international companies before developing an interest on politics and deciding to enter education. Whilst completing his studies, Jesse has held several positions, such as parliamentary researcher for the UK Parliament, data analyst for the Icelandic Constitutional Archives, and programme supervisor for the Interfaith & Community Relations Forum. 

Research interests

• Queer Studies
• Sexuality Politics
• Nationalism / Nativism
• Populist Radical Right
• European Union Politics
• Masculinity Studies
• Mixed-Methods
• Comparative Politics

PhD research

The Populist Radical Right (PRR) is often associated with political positions discriminative against minority groups – most often targeting groups such as the queer community, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. The advancement of PRR parties has come at the challenge to liberal democratic values across both Europe, and the wider world. However, the new millennium has seen a divergent uprising in the PRR which retains nativist attitudes towards immigrants, immigration policy, and ethnic minorities (IIEM) yet adopts certain degrees of sexual-liberal positions on homosexuality.

My research aims to investigate this using a three-phase, mixed-methods research design to contribute homonativism as a framework for analysing this phenomenon. A qualitative content analysis of political party manifestos at both the national and European level aims to map the emergence of homonativism and analyse possible top-down mechanisms. Then, a quantitative longitudinal analysis of social attitudes will be conducted to investigate the possibility of a potential homonativist electorate as well as identify who this electorate is most likely to be formed of and analyse any possible bottom-up mechanisms. Lastly, semi-structured interviews with social movements and charity organisations will supplement the research to give a comprehensive documentation of the phenomenon.

PhD supervisors

Dr Isabelle Hertner and Dr Russell Foster