Dr Maxine David

Biography

Dr Maxine David is a Lecturer in the School of Politics, University of Surrey, UK. She convenes and leads modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including on International Intervention, Foreign Policy Analysis, Globalisation and Eastern Europe. She is a regular guest lecturer at the American University in London, where she lectures on EU actorness in the context of a globalising world. For the past three years, she has taught a module on International Intervention at the Summer School of the Centre for Comparative Conflict Studies, Faculty of Media and Communication, Belgrade. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies (JCER)

Her research to date has focused on the foreign policies of Russia, the UK and the European Union. She was joint coordinator and co-editor of a project mapping the 27 EU Member States relations with Russia and wrote the chapter on UK and Irish relations with Russia. A Special Issue with Journal of Contemporary Studies was published in 2011, which covers 15 of these relations. In May 2013 an edited collection, National Perspectives on Russia: European Foreign Policy in the Making?,  covering the entirety of the bilateral relations was published with Routledge. 

She is particularly interested in the role of structure, both domestic and international, and its effects on the capacity of states to operate as independent actors. She is currently working on articles related to the use of Social Media in Russia, Russia's relations with the WTO and regional trading organisations as well as on Russia's interactions within the UN in relation to the crisis in Syria.

Maxine is also one of the key members of a British Academy-funded project called: On the Receiving End: towards more critical and inclusive perspectives on international intervention. As part of the Surrey team, she works with partners in Serbia and Palestine, documenting the lived experiences of those on the receiving end of interventionist actions and ensuring an exchange of knowledge and practice between the different academic communities. A Special Issue, International intervention: assembling critical perspectives, will be published in 2014 for which Maxine is acting as both Editor and co-author.

Research Interests

• European Union External Relations
• Foreign Policy Analysis
• Russian Foreign Policy
• IR Theory
• International Intervention

Areas of Dissertation Supervision

• Foreign Policy
• Russia
• European Union
• Eastern Europe
• European Enlargement

Research Collaborations

with Tatiana Romanova, St Petersburg State University, Russia Modernisation in Russia

with Prof. M Breen-Smyth, British Academy International Partnership Scheme, On the Receiving End: Towards More Critical and Inclusive Perspectives on International Intervention

with Jackie Gower, King's College London and Hiski Haukkala, University of Tampere, Finland National Perspectives on Russia: European Foreign Policy in the Making?

Publications

PUBLICATIONS

Forthcoming July 2013 'The Empowering Use of Social Media in Russia: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back' Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)

May 2013, 'Ireland and the UK' in M David, J Gower & H Haukkala (eds) National Perspectives on Russia; European Foreign Policy in the Making, London: Routledge.

May 2013 with Gower, J & Haukkala, H ‘Introduction’ in M. David, J, Gower & H. Haukkala (eds) National Perspectives on Russia: European Foreign Policy in the Making? London: Routledge.

May 2013 with Gower, J & Haukkala, H ‘Conclusion in M. David, J, Gower & H. Haukkala (eds) National Perspectives on Russia: European Foreign Policy in the Making? London: Routledge.

2012, with R Guerrina ‘Gender Norms and the EU’s Normative Power in the External Dimension’, Special Issue of Women’s Studies International Forum.

2012 ‘Nothing To See Here: The 2012 EU-Russia Summit’ e-International Relations. Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2012/06/26/nothing-to-see-here-the-2012-eu-russia-summit/

2011, ‘A Less than Special Relationship - the UK’s Russia Experience’, Special Issue Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 19, 2: 189-200

2011 with Gower, J & Haukkala, H, ‘Introduction: The European Union and Russia’, Special Issue Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 19, 2:183-8

24 Nov 2010 ‘EU Flexes Its Global Muscles’, Public Service.co.uk. Available at: http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=15281

Feb 2008, ‘Exploiting Marginality: The Case of Russia’ in Parker, N (ed) The Geopolitics of Europe’s Identity: Centers, Boundaries and Margins.  Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave

WORK IN PROGRESS

New Technologies: Empowering Citizens in Russia

Russia in the WTO

You Call It Intervention: We Call It War: mapping the conceptual terrain

The United Nations: A Return to the Old World Order?

Teaching

Pedagogical Principles

Maxine's approach to teaching is most clearly embedded in the Problem-Based Learning literature, which facilitates the application of theory and requires students to take responsibility for their own learning. Most importantly, it relegates her increasingly to the role of a facilitator versus a transmitter of knowledge, and encourages independent and deep learning through collaborative practices. 

The classroom is treated as a collaborative learning arena. This is perhaps most noticeable in the FHEQ level 6 module Case Studies in Globalisation where classes are fully discursive and collaborative.  Students responded well to the teaching style, making comments such as: 

• “Seminar discussions are excellent. Great debate and discussion and a great environment for learning”;
• "I liked the way she got us involved teaching a class. Peer reviews on each other. Providing each other with useful criticisms. Group work and analysing the effect this has on us as individuals”;
• “Lots of group discussions – new ideas”.

Such comments result from putting students centre stage and ensuring building blocks are in place from the first year of UG academic study. 

Further evidence of Maxine's commitment to best pedagogical practice lies in the fact that she received the Vice Chancellor's Excellence in Teaching award in April 2012. As a result, in the 2013-14 academic year, she will lead a School of Politics initiative to run a project with students, commec=ncing in October 2013 and run through the academic year. It is entitled: Building a Research Culture from Day 1, Year 1 and its aims are fourfold:
1) To help students make the transition from A level to degree level work;
2) To promote active (vs passive) learning processes;
3) To build the research culture (incorporating enquiry, evaluation, argument, synthesis) necessary to Politics;
4) To address the typical resistance to Study Skills modules. Their position in the driving seat means students make their own connections between skills development and discipline.

Module Leader Responsibilities 

• International Intervention I (MA)
• The EU and Its Neighbourhooed (MA)
• Case Studies in Globalisation (Level 6)
• Foreign Policy Analysis (Level 5)
• Contemporary International History (Level 4)

Previously supervised UG and MA dissertations include:

• The Limits of Hegemony: The USA, Turkey and the EU
• The EU: A Partner or Victim of Russian Energy Politics?
• Liberal Intergovernmentalism and the Codification of ESDP at Nice
• EU Development Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy
• The History of EU Security and Its Future Role
• Turkey, an Ordinary Candidate for EU Membership?
• CFSP: the EU as a Global Actor
• Identity Construction in Central Europe since 1989
• Security and the Need for Cooperation: The Case of Russia

Departmental Duties

I am Undergraduate Programme Director

Affiliations

Maxine is responsible for delivery of International Intervention in a Globalised World, one of three courses at the Summer School run by the Center for Comparative Conflict Studies. CFCCS is a research and educational center at the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK), Belgrade Singidunum University.

She is a Guest Lecturer at the American University in London.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Executive Committee member designate of University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES)

Co-Editor of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies (JCER)

Member of:

• UACES
• BISA
• ISA
• PSA
• BASEES

CONFERENCE RELATED ORGANISATION

September 13 Panel Organiser: Russia's External Relations: Study and Practice, UACES 43rd Annual Conference

September 2012 Panel Organiser: The EU-Russia Partnership for Modernisation: Realising the Potential, UACES 42nd Annual Conference

April 2011 Workshop co-organiser Engagement and Impact: How To Connect Communities, Pre-conference event for PSA, London 18 April 2011

April 2011 Workshop organiser and Chair Russia’s Place in the Post-Soviet World, Pre-conference event for PSA, London 18 April 2011

April 2011 Academic Convenor (with R Guerrina, S Usherwood and T Capelos)   PSA Annual Conference, London, 19-21 April 2011

June 2010 Workshop Co-organiser, Responsibility 2 Rebuild: Linking Infrastructure Development, Governance and Democratisation. Funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Surrey

April 2010 Workshop Co-organiser, Bilateral Relations with Russia and the Impact on a Common EU Policy towards Russia. Funded by UACES and European Security

May 2005 Workshop Organiser, The EU and Russia after the 2004 Enlargement: Lessons for Cooperation and Integration Funded by UACES