Neil Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bristol. Prior to joining UoB in 2016, Neil was a postdoctoral fellow on the Northern Ireland Assembly election study, at Queen’s University Belfast. He completed his PhD at QUB, which examined the nature of intra-party democracy in Northern Ireland.

His work to date has focused primarily on issues concerning party democracy in Northern Ireland, with published research on voting behaviour, gender, party organisation, and ideology. He is currently undertaking research on: the security of politicians (including the cases of the UK and Ireland); commemorations of peace agreements; the British Labour Party; and unionist ideological development.

His most recent publications include:

‘The security of politicians: towards a research agenda’, with Sean Haughey (2024), forthcoming in Parliamentary Affairs

‘By their friends shall ye know them: Donald Trump and the Democratic Unionist Party’s populist revival’ (2024) Irish Political Studies, early online version: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2024.2319609?src=exp-la