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Politics and International Studies

Guillermo Alonso Simon

PhD Candidate

Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant

For academic or PhD enquiries:

guillermo.alonso-simon@warwick.ac.uk

For teaching enquiries (staff email):

guillermo.alonso-simon.1@warwick.ac.uk 

For students: To book a meeting please contact me on my staff email, suggesting a time slot and whether you prefer a face-to-face or Microsoft Teams meeting

Qualifications

BA (Hons), Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, First Class Honours, Lancaster University, UK (oct. 2016 - jul. 2019)

MSc, International Relations, IE School of Global and Public Affairs, Top Ten of Class, Spain (oct. 2019 - jul. 2020)

PhD, Politics and International Relations, University of Warwick, UK (oct. 2021 - ongoing)

Visiting PhD Researcher, LUISS Guido Carli University, Italy (sept. 2023 - feb. 2024)

Profile

My research interests are currently situated in the overlap between Comparative Political Economy and European studies, specifically in the growing field of European Political Economy. I am particularly interested in the integration and governance of multiple capitalisms under the Euro, given the context of an incomplete political and economic union, and the rise of challenges like increased levels of socioeconomic inequality, growing public debts, and the need for investment to tackle the climate crisis.

As an example of this, my doctoral research (provisional title: The Lagging South? Convergence, Europeanisation, and the fiscal politics of EMU accession in Spain and Italy), funded by a Chancellors' International Scholarship, and supervised by Prof. Ben Clift and Prof. Özlem Atikcan, analyses Italy and Spain's accession to the European Monetary Union in the 1990s. In the context of recent debates about member states' convergence under the Euro, I study the evolution of each country's fiscal politics and policymaking in response to the Maastricht Treaty's requirements, linking the outcomes of EMU accession to the public financial issues they confronted during the Eurozone crisis. The objective is to provide a historical account of how the European model of monetary integration has influenced Italy and Spain's capitalist restructuring, as well as of how the crisis showcased the problems of fiscal integration and convergence under the Single Currency. Part of the thesis' findings will be published in an upcoming article in the Journal of Common Market Studies.

I also have administrative, teaching, and research experience from previous employment. In particular, before starting my PhD I worked as a Research Assistant for various projects, ranging from qualitative studies into understanding violent extremist groups, to the digital revolution and its implications for the European Union.

Research interests
  • Comparative and European Political Economy, specifically of Southern Europe
  • European economic integration and governance, particularly in relation to Europeanisation dynamics and to the Eurozone debt crisis.
  • The role of the state in contemporary capitalism, particularly in regards to fiscal policymaking and public financial management.
  • Constructivist Political Economy, specifically recent approaches related to the politics of economic ideas
Academic publications
  • Alonso Simón, G. (In print), 'Opening the Black Box of Convergence in the European Economic and Monetary Union: A Discursive Analysis', forthcoming in Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS)
  • Bayes, C, Johnson, M & Alonso, G (2020), ‘WP Game Playing: Exploring alternative pathways to ‘New Political Minds'’. in G Atherton, S Kendall, M Naughton & M Webster (eds), The Third Age of Widening Access, National Education Opportunities Network (NEON).
  • Johnson, M. T, Bowden, G. and Alonso, G. (2020) ‘Rethinking Disadvantage: A social capital approach to Widening Participation’, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, Vol 22 (1), p.55-78.
Selected Conference Presentations
  • Alonso Simón, G. & Stockwell, L. (2024) “Macroeconomic indicators, issue evolution, and the narrative construction of the Eurozone crisis” in the Annual PAIS Research Conference, University of Warwick
  • Alonso Simón, G. (2024) “The Lagging South? Convergence, Europeanisation, and the fiscal politics of EMU accession in Spain and Italy”, presented in the British International Studies Association (BISA) Annual Conference 2024, Birmingham
  • Alonso Simón, G. (2024) “Opening the black box of ‘convergence’ in the European Economic and Monetary Union: the contributions of Comparative Political Economy and Europeanisation research”, presented in the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)’s Standing Group on the European Union (SGEU) Biennial Conference, Lisbon
  • Alonso Simón, G. & Otero Iglesias, M. (2024) “Varieties of Capitalism, NGEU, and the Politics of Coordination in Post-Covid Spain”, presented in the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conference, San Francisco
Other publications
Teaching experience
  • Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant, PO131 World Politics, PAIS Department, The University of Warwick (2024-2025; 2023-2024)
  • Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant, PO133 Foundations of Political Economy, PAIS Department, The University of Warwick (2022-2023)
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, PO107 Introduction to Politics, PAIS Department, The University of Warwick (2021-2022)
  • Intern Workshop Coordinator, New Political Minds course, Richardson Institute for Peace Studies, Lancaster University, August 2019
Awards and Scholarships
  • Chancellors' International Scholarship, Doctoral College, University of Warwick, 2022-2025
  • Best Undergraduate Dissertation - Philosophy, Lancaster University, 2019
Other Activities
    • Co-Chair of the 2022-2023 Critical Research and International Political Studies (CRIPS) graduate working group