Biography
I began my academic career in the politics department at the University of Sheffield, before moving to Cambridge in 2007 to teach political theory. I have worked in POLIS ever since, and was promoted to a full professorship in October 2018. From then, until the middle of 2025, I was Professor of Political Thought and Intellectual History, and from July 1, 2025, following my election to the post, I hold the title of Professor of Politics.
Research
Research Interests
Ongoing research and writing is focused on three main themes. (1) the relationship between artistic modernism and modern politics, especially around the First World War (2) the global political and economic thought of the period 1848-1914; and (3) various connections between wartime, politics, and environmental history, in the Anthropocene.
Publications
Politics and the Anthropocene, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019.
The Propriety of Liberty: Persons, Passions and Judgement in Modern Political Thought, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Lineages of Empire: The Historical Roots of British Imperial Thought (ed.) Duncan Kelly, (= Proceedings of the British Academy, no. 155) Oxford University Press for The British Academy, 2009.
The State of the Political: Conceptions of Politics and the State in the Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Franz Neumann, Oxford University Press for The British Academy, 2003.
For a fuller list of current publications, please see my brief CV.
Teaching and Supervisions
Undergraduate Teaching 2025-2026
POL1 - The Modern State and its Alternatives
POL11 - Political Philosophy and the History of Political Thought since c. 1890
HP3 - Theory and Practice in History and Politics
Postgraduate Teaching 2025-2026
Methods Seminar for new POLIS PhD students
Supervision on the MPhil in POLIS and the MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History
Post-graduate supervision interests
I am keen to supervise projects in line with my research interests. For a list of recent and current PhD students I have been principal supervisor for, see my CV.
