John Curtice

Sir
John Curtice
FRSA FRSE FBA FAcSS
Curtice in 2016
Born (1953-12-10) 10 December 1953 (age 71)
Redruth, Cornwall, England
Spouse
Lisa Joan Riding
​
(m. 1978)​
Children1
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Oxford (MA)
Academic work
DisciplinePolitics
InstitutionsUniversity of Strathclyde
University of Liverpool
University of Oxford[1]
Websitewww.strath.ac.uk/staff/curticejohnprof Edit this at Wikidata
John Curtice (2016)

Sir John Kevin Curtice (born 10 December 1953) is a British political scientist and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde[2][3] and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research.[4] He is particularly interested in electoral behaviour and researching political and social attitudes. He took a keen interest in the debate about Scottish independence.[5]

Early life and education

Curtice was born on 10 December 1953 in Redruth,[2][6] and grew up in St Austell, Cornwall. In an interview with The Guardian, Curtice said his interest in electoral behaviour began when he was allowed to stay up to watch a results show on television at the 1964 election.[7] The son of a construction worker and a part-time market researcher, he was privately educated at Truro School from 1965 to 1972,[2][8] and the University of Oxford where he was an undergraduate student and choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford reading philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) and graduating in 1976.[9] He was a contemporary of Tony Blair[9] but described the transition to Oxford as "fairly challenging, coming from a working-class background".[7]

Career

From 1981 to 1983 Curtice was a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.[10][1][11] Curtice was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Liverpool from 1983 to 1988, then a lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde from 1988 to 1997[1] before being promoted to Professor in 1998.[2]

Curtice serves as president of the British Polling Council, vice-chair of the Economic and Social Data Service's Advisory Committee and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Elections, the Executive Committee of the British Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, and the Policy Advisory Committee of the Institute for Public Policy Research.[3] He was formerly a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and a member of the steering committee of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project.[3]

Curtice has frequently appeared on BBC News during broadcast coverage of general elections in the United Kingdom, giving his predictions of the results in 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2017.[12] With David Firth he developed the methodology used in the exit poll estimation used in the general election coverage.[13] He has picked up a strong following on social media, and was mentioned frequently on Twitter during the 2017 election, though he shuns this attention, adding "I've no wish to become a media celebrity".[14]

Books

Curtice is an author and co-author of several books[15] including:

  • British Social Attitudes: the 24th report (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M. Phillips, M. Johnson and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2008[3][ISBN missing]
  • British Social Attitudes: the 25th report (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M. Phillips, and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2009[3][ISBN missing]
  • Has Devolution Worked? (ed. with B. Seyd), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009[3]
  • Revolution or Evolution?: The 2007 Scottish Elections, (with D. McCrone, N. McEwen, M. Marsh and R.Ormston), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009[3][ISBN missing]
  • British Social Attitudes: the 26th report (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M Phillips, and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2010.[3][ISBN missing]
  • British Social Attitudes: the 27th report (ed. with A. Park, E. Clery and C. Bryson), London: Sage, 2010[3][ISBN missing]

Awards and honours

Curtice was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 1992 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2004.[3] In 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[16] In 2017, he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.[17] He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).[2] Curtice was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to the Social Sciences and Politics.[2][18]

Personal life

Curtice married Lisa Joan Riding in 1978.[2] She is a social scientist[19] who later retrained as a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church.[20][21] They have one daughter[10] and two granddaughters.[22] He is a member of the National Liberal Club.[2]

Curtice and Riding previously lived in the West End district of Glasgow[7] but have since moved to Port Glasgow in Inverclyde due to Riding becoming the new rector of St Mary's Episcopal Church.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c Anon (2012). "Professor John Curtice, MA(Oxon), FRSA". University of Strathclyde. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Anon (2017). "Curtice, Prof. Sir John (Kevin)". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U256201. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anon (2008). "Staff profile of Prof. John Curtice". strath.ac.uk. Strathclyde University. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015.
  4. ^ "John Curtice". natcen.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017.
  5. ^ Curtice, John (25 February 2008). "Where stands the Union now? Lessons from the 2007 Scottish Parliament election". Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived from the original on 5 July 2010.
  6. ^ Directory of European Political Scientists. Hans Zell Publishers. 7 November 2016. p. 100. ISBN 978-3-11-157755-5. Retrieved 22 May 2024. [ISBN missing]
  7. ^ a b c Brooks, Libby (14 June 2024). "'Uncharted waters': elections guru Prof Sir John Curtice on 4 July predictions". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  8. ^ Trewhela, Lee (11 December 2019). "Cornwall polling guru Sir John Curtice's surprise general election prediction". Cornwall Live.
  9. ^ a b Castle, Stephen (2024). "Meet the One Man Everyone Trusts on U.K. Election Nights". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2024.
  10. ^ a b Crace, John (31 May 2005). "John Curtice: top tipster". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  11. ^ "CREST-Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends". 2 June 2009. Archived from the original on 2 June 2009.
  12. ^ Anon (30 December 2017). "Polling expert John Curtice gets 'unanticipated' knighthood". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  13. ^ Curtice, John; Firth, David (2008). "Exit polling in a cold climate: The BBC/ITV experience in Britain in 2005 (with discussion)". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society). 171: 509–539. doi:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2007.00536.x. S2CID 16758864.
  14. ^ Anon (9 June 2017). "The cult of Curtice: social media love for polling guru". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  15. ^ John Curtice publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  16. ^ "British Academy announces 42 new fellows". Times Higher Education. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  17. ^ "Honorary Fellowship". RSS.
  18. ^ "No. 62150". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2017. p. N2.
  19. ^ Anon (2024). "Dr. Lisa Curtice, Director". craighead.org.uk. Craighead Institute, Scotland. Archived from the original on 4 June 2024.
  20. ^ Chakelian, Anoosh (25 March 2023). "John Curtice on how the Tories are "stuffed"". New Statesman.
  21. ^ United Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway, "New Priest in Charge Appointed for Heartlands Churches", 21 April 2024. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  22. ^ a b Tinney, Lorraine (7 October 2024). "Top political pundit praises scenery of area as he makes Inverclyde his home" – via www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk.