Dr Allinson's principal research interests are centred on the social and political history of the GDR, the modern constitutional history of the German-speaking world, and the interwar period in Austria.

He is currently working on a project investigating the workings of the GDR in a 'normal' year in the 1970s, and is researching articles on various aspects of the GDR's development, including Christmas and radio soap opera.

Dr Allinson has supervised doctoral theses on the development of patriotism in young East Germans before and since the unification of Germany in 1990; and on the handling of environmental politics in East Germany by the government and the opposition. He has also supervised MPhil dissertations on the nature of the Freedom Party of Austria, on minority groups in the early GDR, and on the impact of the far-right in contemporary Germany. He welcomes enquiries from potential postgraduate students with interests in the GDR and modern German or Austrian politics.

Dr Allinson's teaching programme includes the following undergraduate units:

• GERM10039 Language and Power: Introductions to German History
• GERM20058 Austria: Empire and Republic
• MODL30043 Communities in Contact: Identities in Modern and Contemporary Europe
• MODL30005 Independent Study

Dr Allinson has also taught units in the German Department on the history of the German left since 1848, and on German and Austrian constitutional history. He supervises Independent Study units in these and other aspects of modern German and European political history.