Tim Wilson
Senior Lecturer
Dr Tim Wilson’s research interests and media appearances range widely over the past, present and future of terrorism and political violence. He is especially interested in why such horrors take the particular forms that they do.
His first book Frontiers of Violence – an ambitious comparison of violence in the contested borderlands of Ulster and Upper Silesia between 1918 and 1922 – was nominated for the Royal Historical Society’s prestigious Whitfield Prize in 2010. Killing Strangers: How Political Violence Became Modern appeared in September 2020. Both were published by Oxford University Press.
E: [email protected]
T: (0)1334 462879
Books
Killing Strangers: How Political Violence Became Modern (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Creating Nationality in Central Europe, 1880 – 1950, Modernity, violence, and (be)longing in Upper Silesia (Routledge, 2017) (Eds)
Frontiers of Violence: Conflict and Identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia, 1918–1922 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010)
Book Chapters
‘”Peace is Today Declared”: Conciliation Committees and the 1920s Troubles’ in D. Gannon and F. McGarry (eds.), Ireland 1922: Independence, Partition, Civil War (Royal Irish Academy, 2022).
‘State Terrorism’ in E. Chenoweth (et al., eds.),The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism Studies (Oxford University Press, 2019)
‘Terrorism and Resilience: An Historical Perspective’ in D. Muro (ed.), Resilient Cities: Countering Violent Extremism at Local Level (CIDOB, 2017):
file:///Users/tkw2/Downloads/105-112_TIM%20WILSON%20(4).PDF
‘Fatal Violence in Upper Silesia, 1918–1922’ in J. Bjork, T. Kamusella, T. Wilson and A. Novikov (eds.), Creating Nationality in Central Europe, 1880–1950: Modernity, Violence and (Be)longing in Upper Silesia (Routledge, 2016)
‘The Strange Death of Loyalist Monaghan, 1912–1921’ in S. Paseta (ed.), Uncertain Futures: Essays about the Irish Past for Roy Foster (Oxford University Press, 2016)
‘State Terrorism: an historical overview’ in G. Duncan, O. Lynch, G. Ramsay and A. Watson (eds.), State Terrorism and Human Rights: International Responses since the end of the Cold War (Routledge, 2013), pp. 14–31. Version available here under slightly variant title:
https://www.academia.edu/15051936/Regime_Terror_Introduction_Terror_and_Terrorism
‘”Almost Frantic with Joy”: the Nicholson Revival and the Belfast Troubles, 1922–3’ in B. Griffin (ed) Irish Studies in Britain: New Perspectives on History and Literature (Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010):
Articles
‘Turbulent Stasis: Comparative Reflections upon Intercommunal Violence and Territoriality in the Israel/Palestine Conflict’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 19:1 (2013), pp. 58–79:
‘Frank Wright Revisited’, Irish Political Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3 (September 2011):
https://www.academia.edu/15052897/Frank_Wright_Revisited
‘“The most terrible assassination that has yet stained the name of Belfast”: the McMahon Murders in Context’, Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 37, No. 145 (May 2010)
‘The Polish-German Ethnic Dispute in Upper Silesia, 1918–1922: A Reply to Tooley’, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, 32 (2005)
‘Ritual and Violence in Upper Silesia and Ulster, 1920’, Journal of the Oxford University History Society, 1 (2004)
Every year I greatly enjoy teaching the IR 5007 module entitled: Terrorism and Liberal Democracy. As the title suggests, this module stands in a long-running CSTPV tradition of scholarship concerned with how democracies should best respond to terrorism: a tradition first pioneered by our founding father, Paul Wilkinson. IR 5007 thus looks at the experience of political violence across a wide-range of democracies: both those of the Global North (UK, USA and so on) and further afield (Nigeria, India) as well as in deeply divided societies (Lebanon, Northern Ireland). It also surveys a wide range of background issues: including the rise of the extreme right, the impact of social media and the rise of popular authoritarianism.
I also welcome applications for PhD study under my supervision. My own broad horizon of interest spans both contemporary and past political violence; as well as the fields of state terror and peace-building. I have particular expertise in 19th and 20th century Irish history: and an overview knowledge of European history since 1789.
It has been a great pleasure to supervise the following students through to successful completion of their doctoral studies:
As First Supervisor
Kurt Bassuener, ‘Peace Cartels: Internationally Brokered Power-Sharing and Perpetual Oligarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia’ (2020)
Kirsty Campbell, ‘”After the Dust Settles”: The Experiences of Local Peace and Reconciliation Organisations in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland. A Case Study of the Corrymeela Community’ (2020)
Amanda Hall, ‘A “New Beginning” for What? The Strained Peace of Inter-Referendum Northern Ireland, 1998-2016’ (2020)
Maria Dalton, ‘More than Just Tea Ladies! The Role of Women in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1990-2000’ (2019)
Brita Midness, ‘Security through Separation: Violence, Fear and Negotiation on the Dividing Line in Belfast’ (2019)
Dan Keenan, ‘Origins of a Derry Icon: John Hume, 1960-1974’ (2018)
Jürgen Brandsch, ‘Indiscriminate Violence against Civilians: An Inquiry into the Nature and the Effects of Group-Selective Violence’ (2018)
Florian Englberger, ‘Dealing with Nationalism in View of a Human Need to Belong: The Feasibility of Narrative Transformation in Northern Ireland’ (2018)
As Second Supervisor
Diana Florez, ‘Invisible Transitional Justice: A Comparative Case in the Catatumbo and Montes de Maria Regions (Colombia)’ (2020)
Lina Malagon, ‘The Role of Victims’ Organizations in Shaping Transformative Transitional Justice in Colombia’ (2019)
Haian Dukhan, ‘The Tribes and the State: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns in Contemporary Syria’ (2017)
Nina Lutterjohann, ‘The Limitations of Imagining Peace: The Relative Success and Failure of International Organisations and the Georgian-Abkhaz and Moldovan-Transnistrian Conflicts, 1992-2013’ (2017)
Nick Brooke, ‘The Dogs That Didn’t Bark: Political Violence and Nationalism in Scotland, Wales and England’ (2015)
Gemma Clark, ‘Fire, Boycott, Threat and Harm: Social and Political Violence Within the Local Community. A Study of 3 Munster Counties during the Irish Civil War, 1922-23’ (2011)
Editor, Studies in Terrorism and Political Violence (Monograph Series with Lynne Rienner)
Editor, CSTPV Occasional Papers Series
Editorial Board Member: Extremism journal
Trustee, Airey Neave Trust:
http://www.aireyneavetrust.org.uk/
Royal Commission of Inquiry Into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosque, 15th March 2019 (consulted as subject matter expert)
Visiting Fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (2015)
Nominated for Teaching Award (2013)
Nominated by Oxford University Press for the Whitfield Book Prize (2010)
Fellow, Royal Historical Society (since 2010)