Professor Simon Rushton

Department of Politics and International Relations

Professor of International Politics

Profile image for academic staff member Simon Rushton
Profile picture of Profile image for academic staff member Simon Rushton
simon.rushton@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1710

Full contact details

Professor Simon Rushton
Department of Politics and International Relations
Modular Teaching Village
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 1AJ
Profile

Simon joined the Department of Politics and International Relations in January 2013 and was promoted to Professor of International Politics in January 2022. Prior to his move to Sheffield, he was based at Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics where he completed his PhD and subsequently held posts as Lecturer and Research Fellow.

Simon's research has been funded by the ESRC, DFID/FCDO, NIHR, MRC, Welcome Trust, and Newton Fund, working with partners in Nepal, Colombia, Bangladesh, Ghana and Vietnam. He is a member of Visiting Faculty at the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences in Kathmandu and a member of the Executive Committee of the British International Studies Association.

Simon is currently the Department’s Director of Research and Innovation.

Research interests

Simon’s research interests focus on the global politics of health, peace and conflict, and participatory research methods. His work has looked in particular at international responses to infectious diseases; the links between health and national security; the changing architecture of global health governance; healthcare delivery in conflict and other crisis situations; and post-conflict peacebuilding. His current research projects are in Nepal and Colombia.

In 2021, the Improbable Dialogues project team, of which Simon was the UK Principal Investigator, was awarded the ESRC’s prize for Outstanding Societal Impact.

 

Publications

Books

  • Jaramillo-Marín J, López-Lizarazo LM, Ruiz-Galvan A, Bishop ML, Díaz-Arévalo JM, Kanai JM, Lombard M, Rushton S, Shesterinina A, Staples H & Turton HL (2023) Participating in Peace. Bristol University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2019) Security and Public Health. Polity. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Davies SE, Kamradt-Scott A & Rushton S (2015) Disease Diplomacy International Norms and Global Health Security. JHU Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • McInnes C, Kamradt-Scott A, Lee K, Roemer-Mahler A, Rushton S & Williams OD (2014) The Transformation of Global Health Governance. Palgrave Macmillan UK. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • Roemer-Mahler A & Rushton S (Ed.) (2017) The International Politics of Ebola. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S & Youde J (Ed.) (2014) Routledge Handbook of Global Health Security. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S & Williams OD (Ed.) (2011) Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance. Palgrave Macmillan. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Rushton S (2023) Health In Phillips N (Ed.), Global Political Economy Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2020) Security and Health In McInnes C, Lee K & Youde J (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Global Health Politics (pp. 1-25). Oxford: Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2018) The invisible men: HIV, security, and men who have sex with women In O'Manique C & Fourie P (Ed.), Global Health and Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives (pp. 131-147). Abingdon: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S & Kittelsen S (2016) Pandemics and Security In Dunn Cavelty M & Balzacq T (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Security Studies (2nd end.) (pp. 224-233). Abingdon: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2016) Health Security In Caballero-Anthony M (Ed.), An Introduction to Non-Traditional Security Studies: A Transnational Approach (pp. 174-192). London: Sage. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S & Kamradt-Scott A (2016) The revised international health regulations and outbreak response In Davies SE & Youde JR (Ed.), The Politics of Surveillance and Response to Disease Outbreaks: The New Frontier for States and Non-state Actors (pp. 23-40). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S & Duten AJ (2015) The Omega Man, colonialism, and Global Health In Hamenstädt U (Ed.), Politische Theorie im Film (pp. 195-212). Springer VS RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2015) Who will lead? In Frenk J & Hoffman S (Ed.), "To Save Humanity" What Matters Most for a Healthy Future (pp. 301-304). Oxford University Press, USA RIS download Bibtex download
  • Youde J & Rushton S (2015) ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY INTRODUCTION, ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY (pp. 1-+). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2014) Arguments for Securitizing Global Health Priorities In Brown GW, Yamey G & Wamala S (Ed.), The Handbook of Global Health Policy Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. RIS download Bibtex download
  • McInnes C & Rushton S (2011) Health interventions for Political Ends: Medical Initiatives in Conflict and Peacebuilding In Novotny TE & Kickbusch I (Ed.), 21st Century Global Health Diplomacy World Scientific Publishing Company RIS download Bibtex download
  • Williams OD & Rushton S (2011) The end of one era and the start of another: Partnerships, foundations and the shifting political economy of global health In Rushton S & Williams OD (Ed.), Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance Palgrave Macmillan RIS download Bibtex download
  • Williams OD & Rushton S (2011) Private Actors in Global Health Governance In Williams OD & Rushton S (Ed.), Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance Palgrave Macmillan RIS download Bibtex download
  • Williams OD & Rushton S (2011) Coda The End of One Era and the Start of Another: Partnerships, Foundations and the Shifting Political Economy of Global Health, PARTNERSHIPS AND FOUNDATIONS IN GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE (pp. 253-267). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Williams OD & Rushton S (2011) Coda In Williams OD & Rushton S (Ed.), Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance (pp. 253-267). Palgrave Macmillan RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2009) Global Governance Capacities in Health: WHO and Infectious Disease In Kay A & Williams O (Ed.), Global Health Governance Palgrave Macmillan RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2008) A History of Peace through Health In Arya N & Barbara JS (Ed.), Peace Through Health Kumarian Press RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Website content

  • Davies SE & Rushton S (2015) Healing or Harming? United Nations Peacekeeping and Health. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S (2011) AIDS: Five Neglected Questions for Global Health Strategies. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rushton S '‘The Public’, Participation, and the Ethics of Engaging with Communities' in Kate Dommett and Nikki Soo (eds.), Who and What are the Public?. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Elbe S & Rushton S Antimicrobial Resistance and International Relations: Research Brief. RIS download Bibtex download

Other

Preprints

Research group

International Relations

Grants

Externally funded research projects

  • Awarding Body: AHRC-GCRF Creating Safer Space Network
  • Title of Research: 'Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned’
  • Principal Investigator: Juan Mario Diaz Arevalo Co-Investigators: Adrián Alzate (Universidad Autónoma de Occidente); Natalia Campo (Universidad Autónoma de Occidente); Jesús Alfonso Flórez López (Universidad Autónoma de Occidente); Simon Rushton (University of Sheffield); Arlene Tickner (Universidad del Rosario)
  • Duration: 12 months (2022-2023)
  • Total Award: £88,176

  • Awarding Body: NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) Programme 
  • Title of Research: ‘Living in the city: Building collaborations to strengthen health systems to respond to the needs of newly urbanised populations in Africa and Asia.'
  • Principal Investigators: Simon Rushton and Manish Baidya (PHASE Nepal, Nepal)
  • Co-Investigators: Genevieve Aryeetey (University of Ghana), Helen Elsey (University of York), Rumana Huque (ARK Foundation, Bangladesh), Jiban Karki (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Andrew Lee (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Sarita Panday (Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield), 
  • Duration: 9 months (2020)
  • Total Award: £99,650

  • Awarding Body: DFID/ESRC/MRC/Wellcome Health Systems Research Initiative
  • Title of Research: ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal's health system: a longitudinal analysis’.
  • Principal Investigators: Simon Rushton and Julie Balen (ScHARR, University of Sheffield).
  • Co-Investigators: Shiva Adhikari (INEHD, Nepal), Jiban Karki (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Andrew Lee (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Sujan Marahatta (Tribhuvan University, Nepal), Sarita Panday (Politics, University of Sheffield), Padam Simkhada (University of Huddersfield), Madhusudan Subedi (Tribhuvan University, Nepal), Edwin van Teijlingen (Bournemouth University).
  • Duration: 36 months (2020-2023)
  • Total Award: £984,175

  • Awarding Body: UKRI GCRF NGO Secondary Data Analysis Scheme
  • Title of Research: ‘Determinants of health in rural Nepal: Utilising PHASE Nepal data to investigate social inequalities in health and healthcare amongst under-5s’
  • Principal Investigator: Simon Rushton
  • Co-Investigators: Manish Baidya (PHASE Nepal), Tim Chater (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Dan Green (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Jiban Karki (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Andrew Lee (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Gerda Pohl (PHASE Nepal).
  • Duration: 16 months (2019-2021)
  • Total Award: £171,520

  • Awarding Body: Newton RCUK-Colciencias Research Partnership
  • Title of Research: Improbable Dialogues: Participatory Research as a Strategy for Reconciliation
  • Principal Investigators: Simon Rushton and Jefferson Jaramillo (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia)
  • Co-Investigators: Matthew Bishop (Politics, UoS), Jackie Harrison (Journalism, UoS), Jaime Hernandez-Garcia (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia), Juan Miguel Kanai (Geography, UoS), Melanie Lombard (Urban Studies, UoS); Stefanie Pukallus (Journalism, UoS), Jose Manuel Salamanca (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia), Fernando Sarmiento (CINEP, Colombia), Helen Turton (Politics, UoS), Juan Pablo Vera (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia), Maria Zapata (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia).
  • Duration: 24 months (2018-2020)
  • Total Award: £502,763 (£392,763 UK; £110,000 Colombia).

  • Awarding Body: ESRC-DFID Development Frontiers Research Scheme.
  • Title of Research: Resilience Policymaking in Nepal: giving voice to communities
  • Principal Investigator: Simon Rushton
  • Co-Investigators: Julie Balen (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Bhimsen Devkota (Bikas Shrot Kendra, Nepal), Jonathan Joseph (Politics, University of Sheffield), Jiban Karki (Politics, University of Sheffield), Andrew Lee (ScHARR, University of Sheffield), Martina McGuinness (Management School, University of Sheffield), Sarita Panday (Politics, University of Sheffield)
  • Duration: 12 months (2017-2018)
  • Total Award: £297,906

  • Awarding Body: Wellcome Trust
  • Title of Research: Healthcare Anatomy of Conflict
  • Principal Investigator: Louis Lilywhite (Chatham House)
  • Collaborators: Karl Blanchet (LSHTM); Stuart Gordon (LSE); Simon Rushton.
  • Duration: 12 months (2015-2016)
  • Total Award: £50,000
Teaching activities

At Undergraduate level, Simon teaches the Level Three module POL3139 Pandemics and Panics: Health, Security and Global Politics. At Master’s level, he teaches POL6604 Global Health and Global Politics.

In 2017, Simon received a Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

“I view students taking my modules as emerging scholars with something to contribute to our knowledge and understanding, not as passive recipients of truths handed down from on high. The balance I try to strike in my teaching is between conveying knowledge and at the same time helping students to develop the conceptual and critical tools that allow them to challenge conventional wisdoms and re-think common assumptions.

I always enjoy working with students from different backgrounds and with varied life experiences who can engage critically with big political issues, look at things in different ways, and ask new questions. I invariably learn something new from each group of students that I teach.”

PhD Supervision

I am always happy to hear from students considering a PhD in any area of global health politics, or in global governance, international institutions or security studies more broadly.

Current and completed PhD students:

  • Kieran Collins, 'COVID-19 as an existential threat: Securitization in the UK'.
  • Asma Aldawood, ‘Provision of Assistive Technologies in Saudi Arabia’.
  • Jean-Claude Kayumba, ‘UN Peacekeeping missions: the contested role of UN Media in post-conflict reconstruction contexts. A case study of Democratic Republic of Congo’.
  • Minju Jung, '‘The Political Dynamics of Decision-Making in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI): Decision-making in the GAVI board on COVAX’.
  • Adam Ferhani, ‘Health Security as Practice: A Praxiographic Study of Routine Health Security at the UK Border’.
  • Chishimba Mulambia, ‘Decentralisation and Health Service Governance in Zambia’.
  • Charlotte Godziewski, ‘Health in All Policies at EU Level: A Critical Analysis’.
  • Maëlle de Seze, ‘Health policymaking between West Africa and WHO: The construction of viral hepatitis as a global problem and the responses to Hepatitis B in Senegal and the Gambia’.
  • Remi Adekoya, ‘Ethnic identity and ethnic mobilization in Nigerian politics - a critical analysis of the roles played by Nigeria’s founding fathers: Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello’.
  • Jonathan Webb, ‘The EU and Democratisation: Creating Democratic Culture’.
  • Herman Salton, ‘Dangerous Diplomacy: Anatomy of the UN Failure in Rwanda’.
  • Sonja Kittelsen,‘The EU and the Securitization of pandemic influenza’.