Alex specialises in public engagement with the UK Parliament and other formal institutions, and for many years has studied engagement and participation as a form of ongoing, meaningful dialogue. His academic interests include narrative theory, deliberative democracy, representation, and political communication.
He has previously worked in the electoral sector, and within a Select Committee in the House of Commons. His work with Involve has included a public dialogue project on Data Trusts, as well as researching institutional frameworks for participation; he has also worked extensively with Sciencewise on topics including Clean Growth, Genome Editing and Ageing.
Alex studied History at the University of Leicester and obtained an MA in Modern History from the University of York. He completed his PhD in Politics at the University of Leeds, studying the relationship between storytelling and effective engagement (using the UK Parliament as a case study). While at Leeds, he also helped to set up the Centre for Democratic Engagement, which examines different scholarly approaches to formal and informal engagement.