Arda Bilgen, Honorary Research Fellow, 1 August 2021 – 1 August 2022
Academic sponsor: Demet Dinler
Also Teaching Fellow in International Development, University of Warwick
Broadly, Dr Bilgen’s research interests focus on water politics, hydraulic infrastructure development, and the linkages between conflict, security, and development.
More specifically, his research focuses on two areas: (1) the use of hydropower and hydraulic infrastructure as a means of economic modernisation, socio-political change, and nation-building in the Global South and (2) the role of discourses in shaping the dynamics of water politics at local, regional, and international scales.
Dr. Bilgen is working on three writing projects during his visit:
- a book chapter on the centenary of hydraulic infrastructure development and, relatedly, water resources development in Turkey
- a journal article on the emerging concept of “Global Hydro-Hubs” (with Dr. Farhad Mukhtarov at ISS, Erasmus University Rotterdam)
- a grant proposal for a long-term project on the impact of colonial, racial, and ethnic divides between ‘international’ experts from the Global North and ‘national’ experts from the Global South on the implementation of humanitarian aid projects
Randolph Persaud, Visiting Research Fellow, 1 September 2021 – 30 April 2022 (working remotely)
Academic sponsor and research centre: Melanie Richter-Montpetit, CAIT
Home institution: American University, Washington D.C., USA https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/persaud.cfm
Dr Persaud’s research interests focus on Race, Security, and the Liberal International Order; and the legacy of Walter Rodney. He is also working on a research project on ‘Racial Populism in America’ which examines the structural, conjunctural, and short-term factors that have generated the latest iteration of populism in the United States under Donald J. Trump and focuses on the racial specificity of American populism as a distinctive national form of the global phenomenon.
He gave a lecture via Zoom and hosted by CAIT on ‘IR Theorists as Civil Servants? Considerations in the Theory-Policy Nexus’ on Wednesday 27th October.
He also plans:
- a reading and discussion group to focus on the political thought of Walter Rodney, entitled ‘Methodological Co-existence – The Annales and Marxism in the Work of Walter Rodney’. One (online) meeting is planned for the autumn term, and 2-3 for the spring term 2022
- A lecture on the assassination of Walter Rodney. The lecture (internal only) will examine the coalescence of domestic authoritarianism and foreign destabilization situated within the Caribbean during the so-called cold war
- a round-table discussion with Dr M. Richter-Montpetit on ‘Race, IR, and the Liberal International Order’ focusing on race and security studies as major parts of the LIO
- a presentation in January or early February 2022, possibly open to the public, on his research on Racial Populism in America
Mehmetcan Türkölmez, Visiting Research Fellow, 12 November 2021 – 28 October 2022
mehmetcan.turkolmez@deu.edu.tr
Academic sponsor: Ben Selwyn
Home institution: Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey
During his visit, Dr Türkölmez is:
- researching the class dynamics of economic and social upgrading related to the theoretical linkages between social policy and development
- carrying out comparative research on the automotive industries in Turkey and the UK
He hopes to draw on his research to publish one or more academic papers, and to present his work to a Centre for Global Political Economy research seminar.
Fei Xu, Visiting Professor, 20 November 2021 – 19 November 2022
Academic sponsor: Magnus Marsden
Home institution: Chengdu University of Technology, China
Prof Fei Xu is researching China-India economic cooperation as well as issues relating more generally to trade, traders and trading nodes, trading networks and diasporas. She is exploring the cooperation, development and prospects of China and India in the fields of trade, investment and other aspects; how to better release the competitiveness of homogeneous markets and approach the complementary potential of different markets, and proposing countermeasures to further promote Sino-Indian economic and trade cooperation and development.
During her visit she plans to complete a monograph and two journal articles drawing on her research and informed by her cooperation with colleagues in the School.
Dario Kenner, Visiting Research Fellow, 4 January 2021 – 22 December 2023
Academic sponsor and research centre: Peter Newell, Centre for Global Political Economy
During his visit, Dario Kenner is conducting research on carbon inequality and the role of incumbent fossil fuel companies in obstructing the low-carbon energy transition.
He has given presentations at Sussex including a talk to the Sussex Energy Group in March 2021: ‘Exploring how fossil fuel incumbents seek to block the low-carbon energy transition’. In April 2022 he gave a guest lecture to undergraduates on Global Environmental Justice as part of their module on Global Politics of the Environment.
In September 2021 his article (co-authored with Rick Heede) White knights, or horsemen of the apocalypse? Prospects for Big Oil to align emissions with a 1.5 °C pathway was published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science. This research was covered in The Guardian, Washington Post, NPR, New Scientist and El Pais. His article ‘Oil and gas avoided censure in Glasgow for the 26th time. Let’s not make it 27’ was published in Climate Home News in November 2021.
Stefan Pedersen, Honorary Research Fellow, 1 February 2022 – 30 September 2023
Academic sponsor and research centre: Peter Newell; CAIT
Dr Pedersen’s research interests focus on planetary politics. He approaches this multifaceted and transdisciplinary issue from his background in political theory and is currently working on prospects of world order and planetary justice in the context of intensifying climate emergency. During his visit, he is introducing colleagues in the IR department to this perspective and is hoping to create and extend links to a global network of scholars engaged in work in this area.
He plans to present work in progress at department seminars and give guest lectures in courses on environmental politics and IR theory.
Janet Nichol, Honorary Professor, 3 January 2022 – 31 December 2024
Academic sponsor: Alexander Antonarakis
Prof Nichol is an Applied Geographer, specialising in Remote Sensing, Geo-Informatics and Environmental Change. Her main research interests are in the application of remote sensing to air and water pollution including satellite-derived aerosol and water quality monitoring. She has also published extensively on thermal remote sensing of the urban heat island, and landscape change including agricultural and forest resources, especially in context of global climatic change. Much of her work has been carried out in northern Nigeria, Hong Kong, and east Asia.
During her visit she is collaborating on a research project for baseline mapping of kelp forest regeneration along the Sussex coast using remote sensing, with local and regional conservation bodies including Sussex Wildlife Trust, Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Association, Zoological Society of London, Sussex Underwater, and other universities.