Dr Bennett Collins

Biography

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) based in the Department of Politics and International Relations, focusing  my teaching and research on climate politics.

I approach the study of climate change not as a failure of the international system, but as an expected outcome of various systems of extraction and oppression currently at play. I therefore rely on critical historical inquiry and community collaborative methodologies to understand these systems, how they wage violence and adapt to new circumstances, and how to resist and dismantle them. My research therefore extends beyond the ecological focus that is associated with climate change studies, and relies on interdisciplinary and justice-based approaches to locating the social, economic, and political causes and effects of an ongoing planetary crisis. Outside of my academic work, I work with educators, students/pupils, non-profits, community-based organisations, and policymakers on climate education, digital literacy, and policy. 

Before coming to Aberdeen, I completed my PhD in the School of International Relations a the University of St Andrews. In the years leading up to and during my PhD, I held several research fellowships funded by the National Geographic Society, the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, and the University of St Andrews. Throughout this time, I was based at the Third Generation Project, a think tank I co-founded with Prof. Ali Wason in 2016, which remains centred around climate justice and education policy, practice, and research.

Prizes and Awards

• 2024 MacJannet Prize, Honorable Mention - Third Generation Project
• 2021 UK & Ireland Green Gown Awards, Winning Team in Student Engagement Category - Third Generation Project
• 2021 International Green Gown Awards, Highly Commended Team in Student Engagement Category - Third Generation Project

Research Overview

My most current research interests are largely centred around environmental ethics, the historical and ongoing creation of environmental and energy landscapes, and questions of place and displacement within climate change. Past research interests, which continue to inform current work, have included examining policies of forced assimilation/cultural genocide and the effectiveness of transitional justice and other truth-seeking mechanisms in the wake of mass atrocities. This latter work was largely based, often in the form of on-ground work with community-based organisations, in North America and East Africa. 

I have published my work in the Journal for International Political Theory, International Journal on Human Rights, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Peacebuilding, as well as in edited books, such as Indigenous peoples and their Access to Justice, including Truth and Reconciliation Processes (2014, eds. Littlechild and Stamatopoulou), Ethnographic Peace Research: Approaches and Tensions (2017, ed. Millar), Rwanda Since 1994 (2019, eds. Grayson and Hitchcott), and Children, Childhoods, and Global Politics (2023, eds. Beier and Berents).

In terms of practitioner/activist oriented work, with Prof. Ali Watson, I co-founded the Third Generation Project (TGP) in 2016, an award-winning think tank based at the University of St Andrews that produces educational research and materials on the intricacies of climate justice. Within TGP I founded the Emerging Researchers Programme and co-founded the Mutual Aid Clinic to train undergraduate students in collaborative, non-extractive, and reflexive qualitative research methodologies. I have also worked with a range of organisations on producing research and educational materials, including and not limited to: the Scottish Government; Education Scotland; Scottish Development Education Centres (Wosdec, Scotdec, HOW); Rajpot; the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racialized, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations in Maine; Aegis Trust/Kigali Genocide Memorial; Transparency Solutions; Anywaa Survival Organisation; AIMPO-Rwanda; SOM-ACT; and People's Coalition for Food Sovereignty.

Funding and Grants

• Scottish Government (2023-Present; Co-PI with PI Prof Ali Watson and Co-PI Jamie Hinch): Exploring 20th Century Policies Affecting Gypsy/Traveller Communities in Scotland
• Sir Halley Stewart Trust (2022-23; Co-PI with PI Prof Ali Watson): Shifting education out of the classroom: community education for climate action
• Scottish Universities Insight Institute (2020-21; Investigator with PI Prof. Ali Watson & Co-PI Dr Callum McGregor): Education for Climate Justice: Centring social justice amidst demands to prioritise the climate crisis in education
• Global Challenges Research Fund (2019-21; Co-PI with PI Prof Ali Watson): Aamusnaan Maya 'Silence No More': Assessing Responses and Needs of Digaale Internally Displaced Persons Camp at the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic
• National Geographic Society (2019-21; PI with Co-PI Ali Watson): Breaking the 4th Wall of Climate Migration
• British Academy (2016-2017; Investigator with Prof Ali Watson): No Right of Return: Climate Change Refugees and the Politics of Displacement in the United States
• Aegis Trust (2015-16; Co-PI with Richard Ntakirutimana): 'Am I Mutwa or "HMP"?': Examining the issues of the ‘Historically Marginalized Peoples’ label and its implications for the Batwa of Rwanda