Dr Matt Sleat

Department of Politics and International Relations

Reader in Political Theory

Profile image of Dr Matt Sleat, pictured in front of greenery and flowers
Profile picture of Profile image of Dr Matt Sleat, pictured in front of greenery and flowers
m.sleat@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1692

Full contact details

Dr Matt Sleat
Department of Politics and International Relations
Modular Teaching Village
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 1AJ
Profile

Dr. Matt Sleat joined the Department in 2007 and is currently a Reader in Political Theory.

He works on and has published widely across three main research areas: realist political thought, liberal philosophy, and international relations theory. He is author of Liberal Realism: A Realist Theory of Liberal Politics (MUP 2013; paperback 2017) and editor of Politics Recovered: Essays on Realist Political Thought (Columbia University Press 2018). 

He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Political Theory, Review of International Studies, Review of Politics, Political Studies, European Journal of Political Theory, European Journal of Philosophy, International Politics, Social Philosophy & Practice, International Political Theory and Social Theory & Practice.

He has held visiting fellowships at the Australia National University, Queen Mary University of London, Kings College London and the University of Oxford. 

From 2014-17 he was editor of the European Journal of Political Theory, and since 2017 has been editor of Political Studies with Andrew Hindmoor, Hayley Stevenson and Charles Pattie.

He was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2022 for a project ‘Post-Liberalism: A Realist Theory of Moral Practice’, which will run February 2023 – September 2024.

Research interests
  • Realist Political Thought
  • Liberal thought and its Critics
  • Truth and Politics
  • Plato 
  • Nietzsche
Publications

Books

  • Sleat M (2015) Liberal realism. Manchester University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) Liberal Realism: A Realist Theory of Liberal Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) Liberal realism. Manchester University Press. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • Sleat M (Ed.) (2018) Politics Recovered: Realist Thought in Theory and Practice. Columbia: Columbia University Press. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Sleat M (2019) Modus Vivendi and Legitimacy: Some Sceptical Thoughts, The Political Theory of Modus Vivendi (pp. 185-201). Springer International Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2018) Introduction: Politics Recovered-on the Revival of Realism in Contemporary Political Theory, Politics Recovered (pp. 1-26). Columbia University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2018) 'What is Modus Vivendi?: Some Sceptical Thoughts' In Horton J (Ed.), The Political Theory of Modus Vivendi Springer RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2018) 'Politics Recovered: On the Revival of Realism in Contemporary Political Theory' In Sleat M (Ed.), Politics Recovered: Realist Thought in Theory and Practice (pp. 1-26). Columbia: Columbia University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2017) Responsible to Whom? Obligations to Participants and Society in Social Science Research, Finding Common Ground: Consensus in Research Ethics Across the Social Sciences (pp. 37-46). Emerald Publishing Limited RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The resurgence of realist political theory Introduction, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 1-+). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The realist vision of the political Conflict, coercion, and the circumstances of politics, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 45-70). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The realist challenge to liberal theory, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 71-88). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The partisan foundations of liberal realism, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 132-151). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The moderate hegemony of liberal realism, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 152-175). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) The liberal vision of the political Consensus, freedom, and legitimacy, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 21-44). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) Liberal alternatives The liberalism of fear and modus vivendi, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 89-111). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sleat M (2013) Bernard Williams and the structure of liberal realism, LIBERAL REALISM: A REALIST THEORY OF LIBERAL POLITICS (pp. 112-131). RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Other

Preprints

Research group

Political Theory

Grants
  •   Leverhulme Research Fellowship – ‘Post-Liberalism: A Critique’ (Feb. 2023 – Sept. 2024)
  •   British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship - 'The Ethics of Cyberwar' (Jan. 2015 – Dec. 2015)
PhD Supervision

Recent supervision:

  • Andrew Leary - Realism and Egalitarianism
  • Carlo Cordasco - Rethinking Spontaneous Order: Norms, Institutions and Legitimacy (completed 2019)
  • Janosch Prinz – Political Realism and Critical Theory (completed 2015)

I would be happy to supervise research in the following broad areas:

  • Realist political thought
  • Contemporary liberal theory
  • Challenges to liberalism