Jacob Grfffiths

PhD topic title: Spaceship Earth: Interdiscplinary Approaches to Cold War Ecology

PhD supervisors: Professor Erica Sheen, Dr Peter Sands, Dr Shane Hamilton

Biography and research

My background is in Literature - specifically Cold War era Science-Fiction and Fantasy - and Literature's relationship with the philosophies and ideologies of the modern environmental movement. I completed my BA in English at the University of Plymouth in 2019, and returned in 2020 for my MA in English Literature. Previous research projects have focused on the influence of environmentalist philosophy and anthropology on the works of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. le Guin.

My research project will further expand upon my investigation of this relationship, developing an understanding of how the Cold War image of Spaceship Earth influenced environmentalist movements and continues to do so. Amongst other avenues of investigation, I will be researching how the anthropocentrism and mechanistic depiction of the natural world central to the idea of Spaceship Earth can still be found exerting influence over the environentalist movements of today, and how these influences can be variously seen to impact biodiversity. Concurrent with the contemporary issue of the environmental crises are issues within the very environmentalist movements which aim to combat these crises, and my research aims to further our udnerstanding of how preconceptions and prejudices we hold towards the natural world guide environmentalist movements to varying ends.

Funder

The Leverhulme Trust