Emma Sanderson-Nash

Emma Sanderson-Nash (BA 1986-1989, MSc 2007-2008, DPhil 2008-2012, University of Sussex ), is a Research Fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Sussex. She has worked at Sussex and Queen Mary, University of London, with Tim Bale and Paul Webb, primarily on party organisation, specialising in intra-party power and the Liberal Democrats.

Prior to obtaining her DPhil, Emma worked for 15 years for the Liberal Democrats in Westminster. Her roles there included working as MP's Researcher for Simon Hughes, Ray Michie and Shirley Williams, as well as a range of specialist projects with Paddy Ashdown, Norman Baker (including research on 'The Strange Death of David Kelly' Methuen, 2007), and Charles Kennedy. She ran the party's Treasurer's Unit until 2005 when she left the party to concentrate on an academic career, and has published a number of articles on party organisation, the Liberal Democrats and Coalition (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/73867).

Emma is currently working on an international project with the University of Sussex and University of Oslo, 'Party-Interest Group Relationships in Contemporary Democracies: Character, Causes and Consequences', examining the relationship between political parties and interest groups in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. (http://www.sv.uio.no/isv/english/research/projects/elin-allern-pairdem/)