Kyle Siwek

Research Topic

Prelates as Political Appointees: Ecclesiastical Patronage and its consequences for modern Britain, 1977-201

My research aims to chronologise the changing role played by successive British prime ministers in the appointment of senior clerics in the Church of England in the modern period. It will consider the extent to which elite preferences were able to shape church affairs, and - by extension - British politics more broadly. By using oral interviews with politicians and Anglican leaders alongside traditional archival analysis, I aim to outline how existing histories of secularisation in the second half of the twentieth century have neglected to explore the institutional changes in the relationship between Church and State. Naturally, my wider research and teaching interests include the relationship between Church and State in nations across Europe, and British Politics in the modern period.

I completed an undergraduate degree in politics at the University of York from 2020 to 2023, and an MSt in Modern British History at The Queen's College, Oxford from 2023 to 2024. My undergraduate research used interviews with incumbent Anglican bishops to explain the voting behaviour of the twenty-six Lords' Spiritual, whilst my postgraduate research used minutes and newspapers to map the Church of England's influence in rural and parish politics at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Alongside my research, I am a Choral Scholar at The Queen's College, and also row in the college's boat club. I am a member of the University of Oxford Rugby Football Club. In the 2024-25 Academic Year, I am Vice-President of the MCR at Queen's.

Academic Awards:

- The Politics Prize (2023) and the Adrian Leftwich Prize (2022) for the highest overall marks in the cohort during my undergraduate degree at the University of York.

Supervisor: Matthew Grimley