About me

I currently teach in the Department of Geography and Environment at the LSE. 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.

If you garden or grow plants indoors you can take part in a current survey project here: https://lse.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0psJgMnFv3lcPn8

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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, Historical Materialism conference, POLLEN (political ecology network) Conference, the Oxford Real Farming Conference, King’s Climate Exchange and the London Conference in Critical Thought.

At the LSE I am the deputy director of the BA Geography programme. I am responsible for running the second year course, Introduction to Global Development, the third year course, The Political Geography of Development and for supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation projects.

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 Hackney in London and my interests include gardening and swing dance.

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