Our faculty
Dr. Cleo Davies
Campus: Paris
Academic and personal websites https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleo-davies-a168b282/?originalSubdomain=fr
ORCID Number https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0205-1015
Cleo joined Forward College in September 2024 and is teaching the courses Comparative Politics and International Political Economy at the Paris Campus.
She obtained a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh, where she also taught for eight and a half years on a range of courses in the School of Social and Political Science. Cleo’s expertise lies in European politics, EU decision-making, and the role of international organisations in transnational governance, as well as UK-EU relations. Before joining Forward, she also worked as a Senior Research fellow on projects ‘Negotiating the Future’ and ‘Living with the Neighbours‘ as part of the UK in a Changing Europe programme.
Cleo takes a keen interest in knowledge exchange activities between researchers and decision-makers and regularly produces policy-relevant output and presents research to stakeholders and decision-makers. Before academia, she worked for over five years in European politics and policy making in Brussels.
Research
Overview of research interest & accomplishments
Cleo obtained a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh (2020) on the role of legitimacy seeking behavior in the European Commission’s Response to the Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2010.
Cleo has published academic papers, policy relevant reports and think tank papers on EU-UK relations, Brexit and its political and policy implications, and on EU decision-making processes.
She has regularly presented papers and chaired panels at academic conferences since 2016, including major conferences on EU studies, such as the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), and the Council for European Studies (CES).
She also regularly publishes blogs in outlets for non-academic audiences such as the UK in a Changing Europe, the DCU Brexit Institute blog, and Encompass amongst others.
Research Projects
Cleo is currently collaborating with Prof. Hussein Kassim, University of Warwick and Prof. John Erik Fossum, Oslo University on a comparative approach to changing bilateral relations between the UK and EU member states, Norway and Switzerland. It builds on the work of the ‘Living with the Neighbours Observatory‘.
Cleo was senior research fellow on two ESRC funded projects examining EU-UK relations between August 2020 and September 2024: ‘Negotiating the Future’ and ‘Living with the Neighbours’. Output included policy relevant reports, blogs, peer reviewed papers and four podcast series on the negotiations and policy impact of Brexit, and the changing relations between the UK and EU member states since 2020.
Cleo was the Research Associate on a joint Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and University of Edinburgh project on policy impact and the use of academic output in policy: Rethinking Policy Impact (February-October 2022)
Research Interests
- European politics
- EU decision-making
- UK-EU relations in a comparative perspective
- The role of international organisations in transnational governance
Current teaching
- Comparative Politics
- International Political Economy
Selected Publications
- Davies C. and Kassim, H. The UK-EU reset six months after the summit: Where are we?, December 2025, explainer for the UK in a changing Europe.
- Cleo Davies: The good diplomat: Starmer’s bilateralism with EU member states, Encompass, September 2025, Blogpost.
- Davies, C. . (2025) “Drifting apart: Family law matters and the ‘Politics of Brexit’”, Border Crossing. London, UK, 15(3), pp. 83–99.
- Report: The Starmer Government and Europe: Resetting Relations in Turbulent Times. Co-authored chapters on ‘The European Union’, ‘The United Kingdom’ and ‘France’, 28 May 2025.
- Cleo Davies and Monika Brusenbauch Meislová, Europe’s leaders converge in Tirana for the sixth EPC summit, analysis for the UK in a Changing Europe, 14 May 2025.
- Davies, C. (2025). ‘The need to be seen to be taking action’: how legitimacy drives the European Commission’s behaviour‘. Journal of European Integration, 1–21.
- Davies, C. and Kassim, H. (2025) ‘Bringing the EU Back In: Rethinking the United Kingdom’s Post-Brexit Bilateralism’. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 63: 1318–1339.
- Cleo Davies and Hussein Kassim. Report: ‘UK-UK: What next?’, July 2024, UK in a Changing Europe,
- Cleo Davies and Hussein Kassim. Report from the Living with the Neighbours Observatory: The UK and its neighbours: views across Europe, June 2024, UK in a Changing Europe
- Davies C. and Kassim, H. How does the EU organise and manage its relationship with the UK post-Brexit?, October 2023, Explainer for UK in a Changing Europe
- Davies, C. (2023) ‘The impact of Brexit: Polity, politics, policy’, Journal of European Integration, 45:6, 963-969
- Jannike Wachowiak and Cleo Davies, UK-EU Relations Tracker Q4, 23 Jan 2024, UK-EU Relations Tracker Q3, 31 Oct 2023, UK-EU Relations Tracker Q2, 27 July 2023 and Cleo Davies and Sophie Stowers, UK-EU Relations Tracker Q1, 28 March 2023. UK in a Changing Europe.
- Christina Boswell, Kat Smith and Cleo Davies. Rethinking Policy Impact: Promoting Ethical and Effective Policy Engagement in the Higher Education Sector, October 2022
- MacDonogh, H., Davies, C. and Smith, K. (2022) Rethinking Policy Impact: Literature Review, published as part of the Rethinking Policy Impact Project, Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Regulation After Brexit Revisited, Hussein Kassim, Cleo Davies, Sean Ennis, and Andrew Jordan (eds.), October 2022
- Cleo Davies and Hussein Kassim (2021) ‘Conclusions’, in H. Kassim, S. Ennis and A. Jordan (eds.) UK Regulation after Brexit, February 2021
Recent presentations
- Paper presenter ‘The UK in Europe: Prospects of Resetting Relations with the EU and Bilateral Partnerships’, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Haus Berlin, 26th and 27th June 2025
- Panel speaker Rencontres d’été GIS-Eurolab, Lille, 27-28 June 2024: ‘Future Possibilities for the UK-EU relationship’, Science-Po Lille
- Panel speaker at the two-day workshop ‘The UK’s relationship with central Europe in times of political change’, 25-26 April 2024, Masaryk University, Brno
- ‘National EU Coordination in the UK: from member state to third country’, ECPR Standing Group on the EU, Universidade NOVA, Lisbon, June 2024, with Hussein Kassim
- Presentation to the Scottish Government’s International School. ‘The EU’s approach to the UK: organization and future developments’, January 2024
- Plenary Panel speaker, UACES 53rd Annual Conference, Queen Mary University Belfast: ‘The European Political Community as a new path for European Cooperation’, 6 September 2023
Research group affiliations
- Associate member of CREW – Center for Research on the English-speaking World – Sorbonne Nouvelle
- Member of the ECPR Standing Group on European Union
- Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh SCOTLAND-EUROPE INITIATIVE series of workshops
- Member of the Council for European Studies
- Member of The Academic Association for European Studies Association (UACES) since 2016
- Member of SKAPE, the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2024)
- Member of the Europa Institute, University of Edinburgh (former steering group member) and former Co-convenor of the Edinburgh University Europa Research group (2016-2018)
- Member of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) Young Academic Network
