My approach

I see myself as an activist researcher. My values lead me to undertake research with people that I believe are contributing something good to the world, from policymakers to artists and activists, but I am objective in exploring what inspires them and what makes their work possible. 

My research is auto-ethnographic. This means that I spend a lot of time hanging out with and working alongside people trying to bring about political and ecological change. As a result, I have had the pleasure of being led to the front lines of some of the most important and thrilling work there is, from people trying to rebuild their community after riots, to people camping out in forests to stop old-growth logging. 

Current work

I am currently exploring how we can use tools from culture and religion to inspire sustainability transformations in the centres of Western power.

Theoretically this means reflecting on two things primarily. 1) The cultural conditions of sustainability practice in trans-disciplinary, -sectoral and -regional  perspective. In short, how do different grammars, images, myths, rituals, forms of play and traditions shape our understanding of what should be sustained and why? 2) The different dramaturgical regimes and religious repertoires that are most likely to trigger transformation in different political settings. 

The kinds of questions I am asking are: which spheres (governments? businesses? wider publics?) should be the targets of climate-based interventions? Is it important that our approach prefigures the change we want to see? How does it change our understanding of our targets to think of them as an audience? What kinds of genres (tragedies? melodramas?), events (summits? protests?) and "actors" (scientists? popstars?) are most appealing to and transformative for our audience? 

Practically I work in two streams simultaneously: policy and activism. In both streams, I spend my time networking, organising events, developing rituals and undertaking documentary and ethnographic research to understand where opportunities might emerge for political and ecological transformation.