51Âþ»­

A few years ago, Jamie Jordan was one of hundreds of politics students hard at work at 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) - now he is taking the lectures.

Dr Jordan graduated from 51Âþ»­ in 2011 with a degree in Politics and International Relations and a Master’s in International Relations before going on to study for a PhD in International Relations at the University of Nottingham, furthering his knowledge of European politics.

Jamie Jordan

“Coming back to 51Âþ»­ has not felt alien to me at all, it feels a bit like coming home,” said Jamie, who met his wife when they were both first years at 51Âþ»­. “The politics lecturers are all great to work with, there’s a group I am very familiar with who were previously my lecturers, as well as a group of early career researchers who have all joined the department more recently that I share a lot of research interests with.”

After Nottingham, Dr Jordan worked at University College Dublin as part of a European Research Council-funded project examining responses to changing forms of EU economic governance by trade unions and social movements.

But it was an experience during his undergraduate year which gave him a taste of a career as a lecturer.

He said: “In my second year, my lecturer asked me to lead a seminar and I remember it went well and I enjoyed it, so there was kind of an inkling back then that I would go into lecturing. I also got the chance to do more teaching as a PhD student at Nottingham and always enjoyed it.”

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As a student in 2009 he was able to see the Greek eurozone crisis unfolding, and what happened to the country in the worst recession since America’s Great Depression. His PhD examined how the economic crisis hit Greece and Portugal and how it has developed. 

Dr Jordan is now module leader for first-year Introduction to Globalisation and is developing a specialist module on European Capitalist Diversity and Crisis, to be introduced soon.