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Matt Henn

Professor

School of Social Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Social and Political Sciences Nottingham Civic Exchange

Role

Research role

Dr Matt Henn is Professor of Social Research and is based within the Department of Social and Political Sciences (SPS) at Nottingham Trent University.

As part of his responsibilities, Matt takes a leading role in research matters. He was formerly Research Director from 2012 until 2023, and he remains an active researcher.  He was coordinator for the Politics and International Studies unit for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014 and again in 2021. Matt is an active member of the Citizenship, Democracy and Transformation Research Group within the Department, as well as the School of Social Sciences’ Centre for Policy, Citizenship and Society.

Matt is also an active researcher. Matt is currently leading two NTU research projects.  The first looks at the impact of studying formal qualifications in citizenship studies on young people's levels of civic and political engagement.  The second project is: Citizens, environmental sustainability and local democracy: Putting people’s voices at the centre of Nottingham’s Carbon Neutral 2028 Action Plan.

He is author of Opinion Polls and Volatile Electorates (1998), and A Critical Introduction to Social Research (with Mark Weinstein and Nick Foard, second addition 2009)  He has also recently co-authored a book (with James Sloam, 2019) that is free to download (from: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-97469-9), Youthquake 2017: The Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain.  This book has over 58,000 online downloads and 60 citations.

He has published numerous journal articles on youth and political participation, opinion polling in Eastern Europe, and political campaigning – most recently for: Journal of Youth Studies; Social Indicators Research; Educational Review; Comparative European Politics; British Journal of Sociology; International Political Science Review; Political Insight; Societies; Education, Citizenship and Social Justice; International Politics Reviews; Political Studies; Policy and Politics; Social Policy and Society; Parliamentary Affairs; Aloma - Journal of Psychology, Education and Sports Science; Sociology Review; Teaching Citizenship.

Matt has recently been awarded funding to work on several research projects:

  • Association for Citizenship Teaching:  "Young people and citizenship education: The impact of studying for the GCSE Citizenship Studies on young people’s democratic engagement and participation";
  • AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council): “Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice - Listening & Hearing from the Frontline”;
  • British Academy: “Youth, Sustainability and Democracy: How Young People Can Shape Environmental Policy in Urban Spaces”;
  • Nottingham Contemporary: “Re-creating the future through arts: evaluating innovative modes of engaging young people with social and political issues”;
  • ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council): “Young people and politics in Britain: How do young people participate in politics and what can be done to strengthen their political connection?”;
  • ESRC: “UK in a Changing Europe: Co-producing an e-tool to increase youth involvement in the UK referendum on EU membership”;
  • ESRC: “The 2017 General Election, Brexit and young people's futures: enabling UK youth to understand, speak out and influence Brexit in a changing Europe”.

Teaching and learning

Matt has a long history of leading PhD programmes in the former College of Business, Law and Social Sciences (1996 - 2012) and more recently the School of Social Sciences (2012 until 2020). In those roles, Matt was responsible for over 140 PhD research students. He oversaw the recruitment of all PhD research students for the School, the coordination of our research training programme, and ensuring that our provision complied with the guidelines of relevant Research Councils.

His general teaching field is in the broad areas of citizenship and political participation and in research methods, and he contributes this teaching to a number of academic courses, including the MA Politics and the MSc Politics and Public Policy.

Career overview

Matt has worked in the Higher Education sector since 1988. He started his career as a researcher in the Department of Economics and Politics at Nottingham Trent University (when it was called Nottingham Polytechnic), and in 1992 he joined the University of North London as a Lecturer in Social Science Research Methods.

He returned to NTU in 1994 and was appointed Course Leader for the MSc Research Methods - a course that became an integral part of our PhD research degrees programme. He became a member of the Faculty Research Degrees Committee the following year (subsequently chairing that committee from 2002-2004).

In 2004 he joined the Nottingham Trent University Graduate School and became Head of Research Degrees and Research Training for the College of Business, Law and Social Sciences; in 2012 he moved to the School of Social Sciences.

During the last few years, Matt has been active in developing teaching and learning opportunities internationally, and these activities align with Nottingham Trent University's internationalising ambitions. For instance, he has presented invited key-note speeches and talks at several international events to inform and enhance curriculum development and educational policy for doctoral programmes, in countries such as Macedonia, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain and Morocco. He has also set up a number of ERASMUS staff and doctoral mobility agreements with strategically selected partner universities in several countries. He was also a Visiting Professor for the 'Doctoral Research Methods Programme' at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona from 2010 until 2017.

In 2010 Matt was awarded a Chair in Social Research as recognition of his contribution to Nottingham Trent University through his research and also his leadership of postgraduate programmes of study.

Research areas

Research interests

Matt’s research interests are in the following areas, and he currently supervises a number of PhD research candidates within these fields:

  • civic engagement and environmental policymaking
  • young people and democracy
  • voting and elections
  • political participation
  • political engagement
  • political parties

Opportunities arise to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD in the areas identified above. Further information may be obtained on the NTU Research Degrees website: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/research/research-degrees-at-ntu.

Current research projects

  • Association for Citizenship Teaching:  "Young people and citizenship education: The impact of studying for the GCSE Citizenship Studies on young people’s democratic engagement and participation";
  • AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council): “Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice - Listening & Hearing from the Frontline”;
  • British Academy: “Youth, Sustainability and Democracy: How Young People Can Shape Environmental Policy in Urban Spaces”;
  • Nottingham Contemporary: “Re-creating the future through arts: evaluating innovative modes of engaging young people with social and political issues”.

Matt is currently leading two NTU research projects:

  1. The first is a national study commissioned by the Association for Citizenship Teaching.  It looks at the impact that studying the GCSE Citizenship Studies may have on young people’s democratic engagement and participation in the UK. It examines whether studying for this qualification impacts positively (or negatively) on existing gender, ethnicity and other social inequalities of youth democratic engagement and participation across the country.
  2. The second project is called: Citizens, environmental sustainability and local democracy: Putting people’s voices at the centre of Nottingham’s Carbon Neutral 2028 Action Plan. His research team is working closely with Nottingham City Council’s Carbon Neutral Policy Team to conduct the research project. They will run a series of focus groups that will bring together young Nottingham residents (aged 16 to 24) to discuss their environmental concerns and policy preferences, including how best to promote and achieve carbon-reducing behavioural changes amongst local citizens to help address the climate emergency.

Previous research grants

  • 2024, Association for Citizenship Teaching:  "Young people and citizenship education: The impact of studying for the GCSE Citizenship Studies on young people’s democratic engagement and participation". Awarded £8,000.
  • 2022-2023, AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council): “Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice - Listening & Hearing from the Frontline”. Awarded £96,401
  • 2022-2023, British Academy: “Youth, Sustainability and Democracy: How Young People Can Shape Environmental Policy in Urban Spaces”. Awarded £7,995.
  • 2022-2023, Nottingham Contemporary: “Re-creating the future through arts: evaluating innovative modes of engaging young people with social and political issues”. Awarded £7,774.
  • 2016-2018, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 'https://meandeurope.com/' funded project, "Co-producing an E-tool to increase youth involvement in the UK referendum on EU membership" (award 4030006249) (2016-2017). Awarded £9,345.
  • 2016-2018, Co- Investigator ESRC funded project, "UK in a Changing Europe: Extension of the Me and EU website" (2017-2018) (follow-on award, £8,000).
  • 2011-2016, ESRC, £77,000 for a project, 'Young people and politics in Britain: How do young people participate in politics and what can be done to strengthen their political connection?' (with Nick Foard).
  • 2002-2003, ESRC, £30.8k for a project, 'First-time voters' attitudes towards party politics in Britain' (with Dr Mark Weinstein).
  • 2001, The Nuffield Foundation, £3.5k for a project entitled "The impact of public opinion research techniques at the 2001 Polish Parliamentary Election".
  • 2000-2001, ESRC, £10.4k for the End of Programme 'Evaluation of the Whitehall Programme' (with Professor Chris Bellamy).
  • 2000-2001, The Nottingham Trent University Research Enhancement Fund, £1.5k for a project on "Election Rhetorics in Post-Communist Poland".
  • 1998–1999, The Nottinghamshire County Council, £4.4k for the 'Youth and Politics' research programme (with Dr Mark Weinstein and Dr Dominic Wring).

External activity

Matt is serving as the co-editor for a number of leading international journals for the discipline, including: "Societies", "Youth" and also "Frontiers in Political Science".

He is a long-standing member of the UK Political Studies Association (UK PSA), and of the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, and Young People and Politics specialist groups of the UK PSA, and of the American Political Studies Association (APSA).

He has previously been a member of, and advisor to, the Nottinghamshire County Council Elections group, and advises political parties and citizenship groups about issues concerning young peoples' political participation in Britain.

He has previously been a member of the steering group of the Nottingham Speakers' Corner Trust.

Matt regularly contributes to the broadcast and printed media on matters concerning elections, political parties, voting behaviour, and voting disengagement.

Internationally, he is widely sought as an adviser on doctoral research programmes.  Examples include:

  • Adviser to the Macedonian Ministry of Education for the Macedonian Education Modernization Project (Skopie)
  • Keynote speech to Rectors and Vice-Rectors at the UNICA Masterclass (Dubrovnik)
  • Keynote speech at King Saud University (Riyadh)
  • Invited speaker at fora in Barcelona, Rome and Angers
  • Invited speaker at Conference on 'Structuring Doctoral education in Europe: Appraisal and Good Practices', at University of Tetouan
  • Visiting Professor for the 'Doctoral Research Methods Programme' at the University Autonoma Barcelona (2010 - 2017)

Sponsors and collaborators

The funders for Matt's research work have been:

  • The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
  • The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
  • The British Academy
  • Association of Citizenship Teaching
  • The Nottingham Contemporary
  • The Nuffield Foundation
  • The Nottinghamshire County Council

Through his work, Matt has connected with a variety of different external organisations and groups, including:

He is interested in exploring possibilities for developing projects with external organisations and groups advocating people’s civic and political participation.

Press expertise

  • Politics and youth
  • Voting and elections
  • Political parties