About me

I currently teach in the Department of Geography at Durham University. My interests include the ecological thought of Marx and Engels, radical approaches to biology, the Anthropocene, the “new” materialisms and geographies of mental distress, especially as it relates to ecology and eco-anxiety.

I am currently working on a research project that aims to advance understanding of the relationship between practices such as gardening, human wellbeing and everyday knowledges of ecological crisis.

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As a biology undergraduate student with an interest in wildlife conservation I was fascinated by the work and activism of a small group of biologists who were influenced by Marxism in their politics and their science. Key influences included Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin.

In 2012 I returned to university to do a PhD part time at King’s College London, supervised by Alex Loftus and Raymond Bryant at King’s College London. I was awarded the PhD on 1 February 2019.

In my research I brought the work of the radical biologists into conversation with some key debates among geographers around how nature-society relations might be understood in these troubling times we sometimes refer to as the Anthropocene. In particular, I argued that dialectical biology offers an approach to the agency of non-human organisms that is often overlooked in these debates.

My work has been published in Antipode, Human Geography, International Socialism and in several edited book collections. I contributed the entry on Ecological Marxism to the Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism. See publications for more details.

In 2020 I published a short introduction to the life and work of Friedrich Engels. Go to Engels book for updates.

Events I have spoken at include the RGS (with IBG) Annual International Conference, the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, the International Congress of the History of Science and Technology, Historical Materialism conference, POLLEN (political ecology network) Conference, the Oxford Real Farming Conference, King’s Climate Exchange, European Society for Environmental History Conference and the London Conference in Critical Thought.

I have assisted with teaching a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules including Critical Geopolitics, Water and Development, Environmental Science and Policymaking (King’s), Sustainable Development and Political Geographies (LSE). I have also taught on introductory modules in global health at the KCL Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

I live in Newcastle upon Tyne and my interests include gardening and swing dance.

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