Christina Anne Boswell FRSE FAcSS FBA (b. 1972) is a political scholar. She is a Professor of Politics and Vice Principal for Research and Enterprise at the University of Edinburgh.[1]
Boswell was born in London and attended the Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith. She completed undergraduate studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford and a MSc in Public Administration at the College of Europe. In 2001 she gained her PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics.[1]
She worked in Hamburg as a postdoctoral research fellow between 2000 - 2006, before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2006 where she has held several research leadership roles including Dean of Research for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.[1]
In 2020 Her 2018 monograph Manufacturing Political Trust: Targets and Performance Measurement in Public Policy was awarded the Mackenzie Book Prize from the Political Studies Association.[2] Her 2012 publication The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge: Immigration Policy and Social Research was awarded the American Political Science Association Prize for the category of 'Best Book on Ideas, Knowledge and Policy'.[1]
Boswell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017.[3] In 2019 she was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and as a Fellow of the British Academy.[1][4] Between 2018-21 Boswell chaired the Scottish Government's Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population.[5] Since 2021 she has held the role of Vice President for Public Policy of the British Academy.