Gerry Hassan

Dr. Gerry Hassan is Research Fellow at the School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of the West of Scotland. His recent PhD is on power and ideas in the public sphere and public life of contemporary Scotland and the construction and role of elite narratives in the recent past.

He is the author and editor of numerous books including ‘After Independence: The State of the Scottish Nation Debate’ (edited with James Mitchell), ‘The Strange Death of Labour Scotland’ (written with Eric Shaw), ‘The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power’ (edited) and ‘The Scottish Labour Party: History, Institutions and Ideas’ (edited). Forthcoming publications include ‘Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland’ (author) and a study of some of the key themes in his doctorate explored in the context of Scottish politics, culture, the public realm and media, and the changing dynamics of the UK.

Gerry has a record as a high profile policy entrepreneur and developer of projects, research and ideas, and has led numerous futures projects, including Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020 with the UK think-tank Demos, as well as A Scottish Wave of Change which was part of the UK Cultural Olympiad. These produced several books such as ‘Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation’ and ‘The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020 and the Power of Mass Imagination’, as well as numerous other resources ranging from films to music to theatre and public installations.

He is a regular contributor to Scottish and UK media, writing a weekly column in ‘The Scotsman’ and regularly for the international human rights website ‘Open Democracy’, while speaking widely on politics, culture and ideas in Scotland, the UK and internationally. Gerry has also produced the ‘Changin Scotland’ weekend gatherings of politics, culture and music and film for the last eleven years since its inception in 2002. He is a Demos Research Associate and Associate Editor of the journal ‘Renewal’ having guest edited several special issues.

Future academic work and research includes looking at how politics, culture and the public realm interrelate in contemporary Scotland and in comparable countries, issues of representation in relation to class, gender and ethnicity, and examining the role of the Scottish political commentariat in the independence referendum debate. Details of Gerry’s non-academic writing can be found at his website: www.gerryhassan.com