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Academics

Helen Drake

Senior Lecturer in French and European Studies Email H.P.Drake@lboro.ac.uk Tel. Secretary: +44 (0)1509 222991 Tel. Direct: +44 (0)1509 222989 Fax: +44 (0)1509 223917 Dept. of Politics, History and International Relations Loughborough University Loughborough Leics. LE11 3TU UK Find me on Twitter:

Forthcoming Event One-Day Conference on the 2012 French Presidential election. Thursday May 24th 2012 at Queen Mary, University of London.   Biography My first degree was in Linguistic and International Studies  from Surrey University, and my MSc was in European Management from Cranfield Institute of Technology. My PhD, in political science, is from Aston University.  This academic background has led me to conduct my teaching and research from an interdisciplinary perspective. Since September 2010 I am co-convenor, with Alistair Cole of Cardiff University, of the Political Studies Association (PSA) Specialist Group for French Politics, Policy and Society, and in August 2010 I was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government for my services to the study of contemporary France. My Palgrave volume, Contemporary France¸ was published in February 2011. My current research projects include Franco-British migration: why do the French and the British cross the Channel?.  In a recent piece on this subject, I looked at young French workers employed by the bakers Paul UK on London’s High Streets (accessible here ). I also continue to explore relations between France and the European Union, where I am writing about the French quest for a ‘political Europe’ (a short piece related to this topic can be found here: What did de Gaulle do for France and Europe? ), and I remain interested in matters of political leadership following my earlier research which centred on the European Commission during the presidency of Jacques Delors (1985-1995). I was curious about the phenomenon of personal leadership in contemporary politics, and the approach I took to the ‘Delors factor’ was one of political legitimacy and legitimation.  My book appeared in English in 2000 (Jacques Delors. Perspectives on a European Leader) and in French in 2002 (Jacques Delors en Europe). Detailed searchable list of publications

Recent publications:

Books - Authored

(2011) Contemporary France (Palgrave) Video

(2000) Jacques Delors: Perspectives on a European Leader (Routledge)

Books - Edited

(2005) French Relations with the European Union (Routledge)

Chapters in edited books

(2010) ‘France in Europe, Europe in France: the politics of exceptionalism and their limits’ in E. Godin and T. Chafer, The End of the French Exception?(Palgrave, second edition; first edition Berghahn; click here for book details).

(2010) (With Christian Lequesne) ‘France’ in M. Carbone (ed.) National Politics and European Integration: From the Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty (Edward Elgar; click here for book details).
 
(2005) ‘Jacques Delors as a European Leader’ in W. Loth (ed.) La gouvernance supranationale dans la construction européenne’.

(2005) ‘France’ in J. Lodge (ed.) The 2004 Elections to the European Parliament (Palgrave)

(2004) ‘”Europe” in the French Elections of 2002’ in J. Gaffney (ed.) The French Presidential and Legislative Elections of 2002 (Ashgate)

(2004) ‘Where is he now? The Delors Legacy’ in A. Smith (ed.) Politics and the European Commission (Routledge).

Journal Articles

(2009) ‘What difference did a (French) Presidency Make? FPEU08 and EU Foreign Policy’, CFSP Forum, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 09, pp. 1-4; click here for downloadable PDF.

(2008, with Sue Collard) 'A Case Study of Intra-EU Migration. 20 years of the "Brits" in the Pays d'Auge, Normandy, France', French Politics, 6,3.

(2008) 'The European Fifth Republic', Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, vol. 12, no 2, pp. 193-201.

(2007)  ‘All Change Here? The French Presidential and Parliamentary Elections of 2007’, Mediterranean Politics, 12, 3, pp. 423-9.

(2006) ‘France: an EU founder member cut down to size?’, Journal of European Integration 28, 1, pp. 89-105

(2005) ‘Jacques Chirac’s Balancing Acts: The French Right and Europe’, Southern European Society and Poltitics, 10, 2, pp. 297-313.

(2004) ‘France in Free Fall? French Perspectives on the Astérix Complex’ (Review article) in French Politics, 2, pp. 221-233.

I am an honorary (former) member of the Franco-British Council (UK Section)