School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

My research explores the global politics of climate, energy, and food system transformations from a world-systems theory perspective. I am particularly interested in developing a critical, emancipatory approach to the study of global futures that is informed by International Relations (IR), critical political economy, and the natural sciences. While primarily based in the subfield of global environmental politics, my work is transdisciplinary - i.e. indifferent to disciplinary boundaries. My work has appeared in journals such as Global Environmental Politics, Review of International Political Economy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Global Policy, Globalizations, and Theory & Event. 

My first book is called Navigating the Polycrisis: Mapping the Futures of Capitalism and the Earth. It brings complexity theory and world-systems theory together with insights from the earth system sciences, ecological economics, energy studies, and critical security studies to investigate the possible futures of the world-system - including both dystopian and concrete utopian futures. It argues that critical IR theorists and social scientists need to devote more systematic attention to possible futures in an age of intersecting and (often) mutually amplifying crises - encompassing crises of climate, capitalism, energy, food, geopolitics, and far-right populism. In doing so the book engages with ongoing debates on green capitalism, degrowth, renewable energy and technology futures, and police-prison abolition. 

I have also written articles about climate emergency discourse, the geopolitics of renewable energy, and the intersections between militarization and the energy transition. And I am currently writing new pieces on post-growth international relations, abolitionist perspectives on ecological security, the political economy of climate emotions, and the role of climate assemblies in democratically planning a just transition.

For my next book project I am interested in exploring the intersections between ecological crises and global mental health crises, which include global epidemics of depression, anxiety, and burnout. The spread of far-right populism, religious fundamentalism, and conspiracy thinking can also be viewed as symptomatic of these underlying mental health crises, which can also be called crises of "ontological insecurity" - involving the destabilization of existing forms of identity, meaning, and belonging. I want to illuminate the multidimensional drivers of these psychosocial crises, illustrate how they shape and constrain our capacities to emotionally process and respond to ecological crises (e.g. by promoting apathy, lack of care, or authoritarian responses), and investigate how we can develop collective responses that promote healing, alleviate polarization, and strengthen climate justice activism.

I love forests, rivers, mossy rocks and trees, cats, and Cuckoos Bakery. I also hope to encounter an otter sometime in Edinburgh.