The Department of European & International Studies hosts a series of research seminars across the academic year.
Hosting academics from around the world and from EIS, the department aims to cover a broad range of topics, reflecting the wide variety of interests and specialisations here at the department.
For questions about the seminar series, which will be taking place in the Macadam Building (MB2.1) at King's College London, please contact Dr Inga Rademacher.
Unless otherwise states, seminars will take place from 15.00 - 16.30.
To sign up for specific dates, visit the series Eventbrite page here
2022
Semester 1
- 16 November: Matthew Paterson (University of Manchester) ‘In search of Climate Politics’ (in person)
Peat politics: climate change, land management and political economy
The management of peatlands has recently become increasingly important in UK climate politics, because of the potential of peat to absorb very significant amounts of carbon and thus play a role in pursuing ‘net zero’. But peatland politics is characterised by a fascinating combination of two contradictory features, that exemplify what I call two inter-related tensions or dynamics, between complexity and purification, and between de- and re-politicisation. On the one hand, peatlands, especially upland peat moors, have become the focus of many complex interventions focused on rewetting in order to enable them to achieve their potential for carbon absorption as well as their biodiversity benefits. On the other hand, there is a rather crude politics surrounding peat moors regarding questions of elite power, concentrated land ownership, grouse shooting, and the consequent forms of land management, and over long-standing contestations over access to land for walking and other leisure uses. This paper explores this tension and speculates how these competing sorts of politics may play out in the pursuit of net zero in the UK.
- 7 December: Sahil Dutta (City) ‘Monetary governance in the leveraged economy’ (in person)
Semester 2 (2023)
- 25 January: Andreas Bieler ‘The Dialectical Matrix of Class, Gender, Race’ (Nottingham) (in person)
- 8 February: Amy Horton (UCL) “Economies of Care” (in person)