Michael Keating (political scientist)


Michael Keating is a political scientist specialising in nationalism, European politics, regional politics and devolution. He is Professor of Scottish Politics at the University of Aberdeen. He is the Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change..

Early life

Keating was born in north-east England of Scottish and Irish parents. He holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenships. Keating holds a BA from the University of Oxford and a PhD from Glasgow College of Technology, now the Glasgow Caledonian University.

Academic career

Keating was previously Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and between 1979 and 1988 taught at the University of Strathclyde. He has been visiting professor in the US, Spain, France, Australia and England. From 2000 until 2010 he was on secondment from Aberdeen as Professor of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, Florence, where he was head of the department between 2004 and 2007.
He is author of eighteen books and editor of eighteen, as well as numerous academic articles and chapters. His publications include Nations against the State: The New Politics of Nationalism in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland, Plurinational Democracy: Stateless Nations in a Post-Sovereignty Era and The Government of Scotland: Public Policy Making after Devolution, The Independence of Scotland, Rescaling the European State, Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences and Debating Scotland.

Awards and honours

Keating is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh., Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences and Member of the European Academy.