Professor Viktoria Spaiser delivers the 9th Faculty Inaugural Lecture
The Faculty was delighted to host Professor Spaiser's lecture in celebration of her impressive research career.
On Wednesday 15 October, Professor Viktoria Spaiser delivered the 9th Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series which began in October 2024 to celebrate the achievement of colleagues who have been promoted to or appointed at the rank of Professor. This lecture marked the beginning of the 2025-26 season of the lecture series.
Professor Viktoria Spaiser is a Professor of Climate Politics and Computational Social Science in the School of Politics and International Studies.
Professor Viktoria Spaiser delivering her lecture.
Viktoria is affiliated with the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures. She has been an Alan Turing Fellow and is currently a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Her background is in social sciences and computer science and her research interests revolve around climate change and the societal implications, climate politics, tipping points, complex social dynamics and AI. Prior to coming to Leeds, Viktoria worked as a researcher at the Stockholm Institute for Futures Studies and the Uppsala University in Sweden.
Viktoria delivered her inaugural lecture, “Facing Accelerating Climate Change Threat: Exploring Future Trajectories, Surveying the Past and the Present,” to an audience of colleagues, students, co-authors, family and friends.
Viktoria answering questions from the audience
The lecture – which began with a personal reflection on the impact on her life and career of being born in the Soviet Union as it was collapsing – explored the connection between global ecological crises and the collapse of social fabrics and political regimes. It also explained what a ‘tipping point’ is, and what these tipping points mean for societies and the environment globally.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session, and finally by a drinks reception.
Viktoria speaking with colleagues at the drinks reception after her lecture.
The tenth Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture will be delivered by the School of Education’s Professor Chrissi Nerantzi at 5pm on Thursday 6 November 2025.
If you are not a colleague or postgraduate researcher in the Faculty of Social Sciences and would like to be added to the mailing list for the series, please email Dr Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.
