Profile

I am a first year PhD student exploring the role of temporality and the future in contemporary political activism. Specifically, my research is focused on environmental and peace activists and how they relate to the future in the context of an increasingly uncertain or negative outlook.

I hold a BA in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick, an MSc in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and an MA in Social Science Research, also from the University of Warwick.

My supervisors are Dr Alex Smith and Dr Charles Turner.

Research

My ESRC-funded project aims to examine themes of hope, despair and temporality based on an ethnography of political activists. As the future becomes ever-more a space of negative expectation and apocalyptic predictions, especially with regards to war and climate change, the ways in which activists engage with it change. Specifically, they may doubt the role of individuals or campaigns in being able to shape the future or they will change their actions from utopian future-construction to crisis aversion. Campaign groups also have their own roles in shaping activism through their internal structures and histories which shape methods and aims. The interplay between campaign groups and individuals is also relevant to the discussion of changing activist outlooks. Through these ideas, an account of activism, temporality and the future will be produced through the use of ethnographic data alongside some archival material.

Areas of interest

• Hope/Utopia
• Temporality
• Ethnography
• Social Theory
• Social Movements