Paul Anderson is Associate Professor (Reader) in Territorial Politics.  

Paul's research largely focuses on comparative territorial politics. He is interested in devolution in the UK, intergovernmental relations, autonomy and secessionist movements, regional political parties, majority and minority nationalisms, and the use of autonomy as a tool of conflict resolution. He has published widely on these topics in various journals (Ethnopolitics, Journal of European Public Policy, Nations and Nationalism, Parliamentary Affairs, Regional and Federal Studies, The Political Quarterly) and book chapters in several edited collections. Paul is also the author of Territorial Politics in Catalonia and Scotland: Nations in Flux (Manchester University Press 2024). 

Currently, Paul is working on a second monograph, focused on intergovernmental relations in England. He is also co-lead of the BA/Leverhulme SRG project: 'Collaging Crisis: Exploring Everyday Reponses to Political Narratives'.

An advocate for using research to build evidence bases and inform policy, Paul has been invited to give evidence to various parliamentary inquiries in the House of Commons, House of Lords, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd. He is an associate fellow at the Centre on Constitutional Change (University of Edinburgh), Honorary Fellow at the Heseltine Institute (University of Liverpool) and Associate at City-REDI (University of Birmingham). In September 2025, Paul was appointed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's College of Experts/Register of Specialists. Paul is a regular commentator on national and international news outlets on all aspects of British politics. 

Paul is PGR Co-ordinator for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is an experienced supervisor and would be interested in supervising PhD topics on aspects of British politics or territorial politics more broadly. Feel free to contact him directly.