Rob Faure Walker is an ESRC postdoctoral Fellow (ES/W005786/1) at IOE, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London where he runs the Critical Realism Reading Group with Prof Priscilla Alderson. His most recent book is The Emergence of ‘Extremism’ (2022) with Bloomsbury Academic and was shortlisted for the Susan Strange Best Book Prize 2022.

He is currently carrying out longue durée critical discourse analysis into the emergence of the modern conception of the market in British Parliamentary discourse and writing a book on a critical realist conception of Love.

Previously, Rob was senior researcher and founder of the SOAS ICOP project. ICOP developed training for academics to translate their research and the concerns of underrepresented groups into one-page briefs. Alongside this, ICOP created a communication strategy to deliver these briefs to the desks of all MPs and Peers in time to contribute to debates in Parliament. Both MPs and Peers indicated that ICOP was their most reliable and trusted source of evidence. ICOP also set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communities of Inquiry across the Generations with John McDonnell MP and Lord Balfe. The aim of this APPG is to catalyse the engagement of groups traditionally neglected in Parliament. ICOP continues to function as the APPG’s secretariat and was one of SOAS's impact case studies for REF21.

Prior to this, Rob carried out doctoral research at UCL and was a secondary school teacher in London from 2006-2016, serving as a Head of Department, Head of Year, Leader of Ebac, CPD Leader, and NUT Rep. He is founder of the Prevent Digest newsletter, has worked as a Tutor on the UCL MA in Education, and has advised NGOs and local government scrutiny committees.