Dr Brendan Mcgeever

Overview

Biography

Brendan is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Psychosocial Studies. His core areas of specialism are the study of racism, antisemitism and anti-racism, historically and in the present day; the sociology of class; the study of the former Soviet Union, Marxism and Marxist theory. He is particularly interested in the relationship between racialization and antisemitism and exploring the extent to which these two areas of research can be brought together within the wider sociology of racism and ethnicity studies.

Brendan is the author of 'Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution' (Cambridge University Press, 2019). This work of historical sociology explores the Bolshevik response to antisemitism during the Russian Revolution, uncovering how it grappled with the racialization of class politics. It also traces anti-racist agency within the Bolshevik movement. Based on archival fieldwork in Russia, Ukraine and the United States, the book finds that the Soviet response to antisemitism was led not by the Party leadership, as is often assumed, but by a loosely connected group of radicals who mobilized around a Jewish political subjectivity.

As part of his wider interest in antisemitism, racism and class politics, Brendan has collaborated with Professor Satnam Virdee (University of Glasgow) on a project exploring the significance of antisemitism in the socialist movement of fin de siècle Europe. A collection of papers based on this work was published as a Special Issue of the journal Patterns of Prejudice in September 2017. 

In 2019, Brendan was selected as a ‘New Generation Thinker‘ by the BBC and AHRC.

His most recent book, co-written with Satnam Virdee, is Britain In Fragments: Why Things Are Falling Apart, published by Manchester University Press in 2023. 

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Glasgow , 2015

Web profiles

• Twitter

Administrative responsibilities

• Programme Director, BA Psychosocial Studies and BA Psychosocial Studies with Principles of Psychodynamic Counselling

Professional activities

Editorial Board member: Ethnic and Racial Studies 

Peer Reviewer: Policy Press, Bloomsbury Press, Routledge, Ethnicities, Identities, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Member: British Sociological Association 

Member: Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies 

Member: British Association for Jewish Studies 

Member: British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies 

Member: American Sociological Association 

Section Member: Marxist Sociology, American Sociological Association 

Section Member: Comparative-Historical Sociology, American Sociological Association 

Honours and awards

• BIAJS Annual Book Prize 2021, British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies ,
• Reginald Zelnik Book Prize 2020, Association for Slavonic, East European and Eurasian Studies ,
• 'Honourable Mention', W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize 2020, Association for Slavonic, East European and Eurasian Studies ,
• Ronald Tress Prize 2019, Birkbeck, University of London ,
• 'Honourable Mention', Alexander Nove Book Prize 2021, British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies ,
• 2019 New Generation Thinker , BBC/AHRC,

Research

Research interests

• antisemitism
• 'race’ and racism
• racialization
• the former Soviet Union
• Marxism
• social theory
• historical sociology
• ethnographies of the archive
• class

Research Centres and Institutes

• Research Associate , Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism
• Department Representative, Birkbeck Institute for Social Research

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

2

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest: antisemitism, 'race’ and racism, racialization, class, the former Soviet Union, Marxism, social theory, historical sociology, ethnographies of the archive. 

Former and current PhD projects include:

Dr Anna Shadrina 'Babushkas: Former Soviet Women Pensioners Ageing in Russia and the UK', supervised with Prof Lynne Segal and Prof Sasha Roseneil.

Ieisha James 'Bordering on whiteness? An intergenerational study of the racialised subjectivities of Italian migrants living in post-Brexit London', supervised with Dr Ben Gidley. UBEL DTP award. 

Lizaveta van Munsteren, 'The Vicissitudes of Psychoanalysis in the Soviet Union', supervised with Prof Stephen Frosh. 

Evan Sedgwick-Jell, 'Depression and the Political - Mental Health, System Antagonism and Social Transformation', supervised with Prof Felicity Callard 

Annie Teriba, 'The New Black Atlantic: Empire, Class and Race in the Neoliberal Era', supervised with Dr Margarita Aragon. UBEL DTP award.

Yu Qian, 'The nation building and the national identity crisis in China: A case study of Hong Kong 2019 through an interdisciplinary lens of philosophy and psychoanalysis', supervised with Prof Stephen Frosh.

 

Current doctoral researchers

• YU QIAN

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Dec 2021 onwards

  Title of thesis:

  The nation building and the national identity crisis in China: A case study of Hong Kong 2019 through an interdisciplinary lens of philosophy and psychoanalysis

Teaching

On the BA Psychosocial Studies I teach or have taught the following modules: 'Racism and Antisemitism', 'Power', 'Class', 'Dissertation'. At MA level I have taught on the following modules: 'Independent Research Module' and 'Masterclass in Social Research'. 

Teaching modules

• Independent Research Module (SSPA085D7)
• Class (SSPA094S6)
• Dissertation Module (SSPA111D6)
• Key Concepts: Global Foundations in Sociology (SSPA161S4)

Publications

Business and community

I have media training.

Media

I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:

• Antisemitism, racism, Russia and Russian history, class, Marx and Marxism

Outreach

2020 BBC Radio 3 'The Essay: Pogroms and Prejudice'

2019 BBC Radio 4 'History of Hate' discussing antisemitism and the Russian Revolution

2019 BBC Radio 3 'Free Thinking' discussing antisemitism and the exhibition 'Jews, Money, Myth'

2019 BBC Radio 3 discussing pogroms and 1919

2017 BBC Radio 4 'Making History' discussing the London roots of the Russian Revolution