Lawrence Mckay

Dr. Lawrence McKay is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton's Department of Politics and International Relations (PAIR), holding a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022-2025). His research focuses on geographic divides in political attitudes across urban-rural, central-peripheral, and economic disparities, with a particular emphasis on how voters perceive local decline and government bias toward urban centers.

• PhD in Politics (2020) from University of Manchester
• MRes in Politics (2016) from University of Exeter
• BA in History (2015) from University of Exeter

Research spans political geography, trust dynamics, and British/European politics, with recent work analyzing PM Boris Johnson's "levelling-up" agenda through experimental methods. Publications examine institutional trust trends (1958-2019), place-based political identities, and community-government perception gaps.

Key contributions include:

• Comparative study of urban-rural divides in Western Europe
• Collaborative work on political trust during the pandemic
• Analysis of electoral fragmentation in 2024 UK elections

Scientific recognition:

• British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022)

Active in academic leadership as coordinator of the prize-winning Political Studies Early Career Network (2020-2022), representing 600+ early career researchers and organizing major conferences.