The Professorial Inaugural Lecture Series: Professor Jocelyn Evans December 14, 2010

The final Professorial Inaugural lecture for semester one will be delivered by Professor Jocelyn Evans, Head of the School of English, Sociology, Politics & Contemporary History (ESPaCH).

Professor Evans graduated from Manchester University and the European University Institute, Florence, before coming to Salford University as a Lecturer in 1998. Before taking on his current role as Head of School, he held the position of Director of Graduate Studies between 2005 and 2009. His research focuses on explanatory models of electoral behaviour, particularly in France and other European democracies, as well as election forecasting. Professor Evans is also co-editor of the Hansard journal 'Parliamentary Affairs' and, from his research on France, has recently been appointed series editor of the Palgrave-Macmillan collection, 'French Politics, Society and Culture'.

Professor Evans' lecture, entitled Location, location, location: should voters care where their MPs live? draws on a new dataset collected prior to the 2010 UK General Election to look at the impact of parliamentary candidate location and vote:

For the first time in over a century, candidates were not required to give their home address on the notice of poll, for reasons of security. 75% still did so, but why did the remaining quarter withhold their address? What effect did this have on their chances of success in the election? More fundamentally, is there any evidence voters took notice of the address for those who still gave the information? Professor Evans will introduce some of the latest advances in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and statistical modelling in political science to answer these questions, to consider the implications for representative democracy, and give insight into the hitherto unstudied area of distance data in electoral analysis.

~ Professor Jocelyn Evans

This lecture will be held on Tuesday 14th December 2010 in Lady Hale Lecture Theatre commencing at 17.30.

We recommend that you pre-register to reserve your place no later than Friday 20 November as tickets are limited. On completion of the registration process your e-ticket will be sent to the email you have provided. Please bring your e-ticket to the event.

Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1357