Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Programme- TRANSFORM. 2022 Highlighted Thematic Project - Nationalism and the state in the era of climate collapse

A PhD studentship is available for an October 2022 start as part of the Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Programme- TRANSFORM.

Whilst climate collapse is increasingly recognised as the most defining structural context of the present era, populist-nationalisms have emerged as a prevailing political threat globally. It has long been observed that the governing nationalist Right, owing to its ongoing proximity to fossil capital as well as its short-termist economic interests, has engaged in a lengthy period of climate denial. This ground is radically shifting, however, where we increasingly see more prominent acknowledgement of climate collapse by both establishment but also more populist-nationalist and far-right constituencies. This PhD-research stream aims to bring these two distinctive disciplinary areas into dynamic conversation to examine the extent to which populist-nationalist responses to climate collapse jeopardise the pursuit of socio-environmental justice. In this way, the project forges new ground in studies of human-environment interaction. Candidates will be invited to ask how already ascendant nationalisms will respond to the realities of climate breakdown, and whether the appeal of nationalism stands to be either strengthened or weakened by the catastrophes undermining climate resilience. Alternatively, candidates are invited to explore how nationalism, in its often-contrasting guises, might compound ongoing catastrophe or whether it enjoys particular political properties that might mitigate and perhaps even avert fuller climate breakdown.