Leon Sealey-Huggins
Biography
Note that Leon Sealey-Huggins has transferred to the Global Sustainable Development programme in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies.
I joined the Department of Sociology in August 2015. Prior to my appointment I worked as a Teaching Fellow at the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.
My work centres on the social relations of climate change, with a particular focus on the Caribbean region. In my research I consider the sociology and politics of climate change in the Caribbean, investigating what climate justice means in the context of global historical, and present, inequalities. I am particularly keen to bring a sociological lens to bear upon what are often very unsociological, and depoliticised, discussions of climate change.
Research
I completed my PhD in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds in 2014. The thesis constituted a sociological investigation into the politics of climate change in the Caribbean. It involved conducting ethnographic fieldwork with actors involved in activism, public engagement and policy-making across the region. The thesis found that while there are indeed trends towards depoliticised, and unsociological, responses to climate change in and around the Caribbean, it is impossible to understand these tendencies without reference to the history of the region as a formerly colonised area. Moreover, the current trajectories of development and climate change in the Caribbean need to be understood in relation to more recent shifts towards forms of neoliberal governance.
My general research interests centre on and around: the sociology of climate change in the Caribbean; the conditions of contemporary higher education; explorations in activist-scholarship; and the impacts of neoliberalism on contemporary societies.
Teaching and Supervision
I have a broad range of teaching experience in sociology including having taught on introductory social theory and research methods courses, and more specialist environmental sociology modules.
I co-convenine the following methods courses:
- SO120 Researching Society and Culture (with Andre Celtel)
- SO915 Qualitative Methods in Social Research (with Ros Williams)
- I also teach seminars on SO114 Sociological Perspectives.
I am developing a new undergraduate module based on my research for 2016/17. The course is entitled Environment, ‘development’ and society: Decolonising the ‘anthropocene’.[Note that this course will not run in light of Leon's transfer to Global Sustainable Development.]
Publications
Peer reviewed journal articles
- Forthcoming, 'Depoliticised activism? Ambivalence and pragmatism at the COP16', International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
- 2013, ‘Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: understanding the ‘new student rebellions’’, co-authored with Andre Pusey, in Graduate Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 10 Iss 2
- 2013, ‘Transforming the University: Beyond Students and Cuts’, co-authored with Andre Pusey, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol 12, Iss 3
- May 2012, ‘Movements and Moments for Climate Justice: From Copenhagen to Cancun via Cochabamba’, co-authored with Bertie Russell and Andre Pusey, in ACME: An International E- Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol 11, Iss 1, p15-32
Book reviews
- November 2012, Book Review of Motta and Nilsen (2011) ‘Social Movements in the Global South’, in Social Movement Studies in Vol 11 Iss 1, p123-125
- June 2012, Review of John Urry’s (2011) ‘Climate Change and Society’, in Sociology, Vol 46 No 3 p549-550
- April 2012, Review of John Holloway’s (2010) Crack Capitalism, in Sociology, Vol 46 No 2, p385
Selected non-academic publications
- Discover Society, DS35 August 2016, Imaging the Anthropocene, Policy Briefing: Oil, Conservation and Development in Belize
- Red Pepper, Magazine – ‘Trouble at the sausage factory’, co-authored with Andre Pusey
- Leeds Student, newspaper – contributed various articles (2005 - 2008) including on: climate change; recycling in Leeds; and cycling in Copenhagen.
- Green Guide: Towards Sustainable Living in Leeds – contributed the recycling and water conservation sections. University of Leeds supplied to all first year undergraduate students.
Selected conference papers and invtied presentations
- July 2016, ‘Rethinking Climate Change in the Caribbean: Locating the Politics of Climate Debt’, Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Plenary Panel: Politics and Philosophies of Reparation, 40th Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies, Newcastle University Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- June 2016, Conference presentation, ‘Rethinking Caribbean Futures: Climate change in the Caribbean’, Caribbean Studies Association Annual Conference, Haiti
- May 2016, Invited discussant, Environmental Justice Panel, Environment and Expertise Workshop, ERC-funded Toxic Expertise project, University of Warwick
- May 2016, Invited presentation, '1.5oC to Stay Alive: Climate-Debt, Reparations and Justice in the Caribbean', at Whatever Happened to the Idea of Imperialism?, Leverhulme-funded symposium, Social Theory Centre, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
- April 2016, Invited presentation, 'Rethinking Caribbean Development: The implicit sociologies of responses to climate change in the Caribbean', at Beyond Development: New Imaginaries in Social Justice Symposium, University of Warwick
- March 2016, Invited speaker at GRP Global Governance Workshop to Assess the Outcomes of the COP21 Climate Change Talks, presentation entitled 'Climate justice, with particular reference to the Caribbean'
- February 2016, Invited discussant at Social Theory Centre event entitled 'Debt, Experience and Contemporary Critique'
