I Want To Break Free: Shattering The Myths About TEXIT

The TNM is hosting a livestreamed webinar with the foremost global expert on independence referendums, Dr. Matt Qvortrup. As the only prominent academic to accurately predict the outcome of the BREXIT vote, Dr. Qvortrup will discuss his work on independence movements around the world, his new book "I Want To Break Free," and how it all shatters the opposition myths about TEXIT.

Dr. Matt Qvortrup is an internationally recognized political scientist with a strong presence in the world of practice. Described by the BBC as ‘the world’s leading expert on referendums”, he has specialized in European Affairs, populism and democracy, most recently in his BBC program ‘How to Kill a Democracy’. Currently a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Coventry University and visiting professor of Political Theory at the American University of Rome, Matt earned his doctorate in politics from Brasenose College, Oxford University, and holds a qualification as a lawyer from the University of Law, London.

The winner of the Oxford University Press Law Prize 2012 for his research on referendums, he was also awarded the BJPIR Prize by the Political Studies Association in 2013 for his work on European political institutions. He has won funding from research councils, including the ESRC, as well as consultancies from national and international bodies. In 2015, he was a consultant to the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs and Public Administration Committee, and he was chief researcher for the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute study of referendums, and he is currently the holder of a grant from the Westminster Foundation of Democracy, on the conduct of referendums in the age of populism.

In addition to his academic work, Professor Qvortrup has written op-eds for The Guardian, The New Statesman, El Pais, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, and the LA Times. Earlier in his career, Professor Qvortrup was a senior civil servant in the British Home Office.