Teaching
I teach courses in international political economy, with a focus on climate finance, energy transitions, state capacity, and global economic governance. My teaching emphasises critical engagement with contemporary policy challenges and historical perspectives on political and economic transformation.
Current Courses
Unit Convenor
International Political Economy
This unit offers a systematic introduction to how politics and economics are intertwined in the making of the global order, asking who gains, who loses, and through which mechanisms. Students engage with classic and critical approaches in International Political Economy to analyse globalisation, trade and trade wars, production networks, global finance and monetary relations, digital capitalism, and recurring crises, including the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Across lectures and seminars, the unit links these themes to struggles over inequality, corporate power, and economic nationalism, helping students to interpret current events through a rigorous analytical lens. By the end, students are equipped with conceptual tools to assess competing narratives about the global economy and to evaluate policy choices around trade, finance, and development.The Political Economy of Environmental Breakdown and the Green Transition
This unit investigates how the pursuit of economic growth has produced environmental breakdown, and how governments, firms, and societies are now struggling to redesign their economies for a low‑carbon and more just future. It introduces students to key debates on fossil capitalism, resource extraction, and climate injustice, using historical and contemporary cases to show how ecological crises are rooted in long‑running patterns of global political economy. The course then turns to the emerging architecture of the Green Transition, examining green industrial policy, climate finance, public development banking, carbon pricing, and net‑zero strategies, and asking who stands to win or lose from different transition pathways. Students learn to connect technical policy instruments to questions of power, inequality, and state capacity, and to critically assess the promises and limits of current approaches to governing the Green Transition.Contributing Teaching
Introduction to International Relations
This unit introduces students to the main theories, concepts, and debates in International Relations, focusing on how conflict and cooperation emerge in a world of sovereign states and transnational actors. It covers core approaches such as realism, liberalism, and critical theories, and applies them to issues including war and security, global governance and international law, international political economy, and human rights. Through contemporary case studies on topics such as great‑power rivalry, multilateral institutions, climate change, and global inequality, the unit develops students’ ability to use IR theory to interpret current events and assess competing policy responses.Previous Teaching
Meltdowns, Crises, and Resistance: Capitalism in Flux and Shifts in Economic Governance
An examination of economic crises, from the Great Depression to the 2008 financial crisis, exploring how states and societies respond to periods of economic turbulence and transformation.Modern Silk Roads: International Trade in a Global Economy
Exploration of contemporary international trade, with focus on China's Belt and Road Initiative, global supply chains, and the changing geography of global commerce.Teaching Philosophy
Teaching, for me, is about helping students learn to think critically and independently about complex political and economic problems, rather than memorise conclusions. I see the classroom as a space where rigorous engagement with theory meets close attention to real‑world cases, and where students are treated as emerging researchers in their own right.
In practice, this means encouraging students to:
- Question taken‑for‑granted narratives and ask who is visible, who is absent, and who benefits from particular framings
- Connect abstract concepts and models to concrete historical and contemporary examples
- Recognise that apparently technical questions often have significant normative and political implications
- Develop core scholarly skills: careful reading, clear argumentation, collaborative discussion, and constructive critique
I aim to create an environment that is demanding but supportive: expectations are high, but so is the level of guidance and feedback. In supervision and dissertation work, this involves helping students refine research questions, choose appropriate methods, and situate their findings within wider scholarly and policy debates, so that they leave with confidence in their ability to analyse the world for themselves. Feel free to reach out if you are interested in discussing potential dissertation topics or research projects!