Dr Sebastien Nobert

Profile

Initially trained as an anthropologist and then as a human geographer, I am a transdisciplinary social scientist looking at the social, cultural and political dimensions of climate-related hazards and risks. Before re-joining University of Leeds, I was an Assistant and then an Associate Professor of Human Geography at the Université de Montréal, where I still act as an Affiliate Professor of Geography.

Prior to my time in Montreal, I was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Hazards and Risk at the School of Earth and Environment also at the University of Leeds (2014-2017). My experiences in the School of Environment at Leeds and in the Department of Geography in Montreal were preceded by research positions as a post-doctoral research associate and as a Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at King’s College London (KCL). At KCL I acted as a co-investigator on several projects looking at the social and political nature of technical innovations used in flood forecasting (what is known as Ensemble Prediction Systems)and I have also conducted critical research on the concepts of resilience and adaptation to climate cahnge through the case of heatwaves in London. This research experience has been followed by a short spell at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) where I have worked as a Research Fellow and co-investigator on a project focusing on the political ecologies of multi-risks management in the Atlantic-Pyrennees region, in France.

This research experience has allowed me to consolidate a solid research programme now worth more than 2 million US$ of grants. This includes original research on the social lives of droughts in Asia, and on volcanic air pollution in Central America, on floods and heat waves in Europe as well as on coastal erosion in North America. This global research portfolio has been developed through a variety of competitive grants as a Co-I (UK Economic and Social Research Council, Deutscher Wetterdienst), as a Co-PI (ESRC-NERC Global Research Challenge Fund, Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR)-Fonds de recherche du Québec) and as a PI (Newton Fund UKCDS-Met Office, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada) in the UK (King’s College London, University of Leeds), in Germany (Freie Universität Berlin), in France (French National Centre for Scientific Research—CNRS) and in Canada (Université de Montréal). This international experience has enabled me to forge collaborations with a global span whilst helping me to develop transdisciplinary research.

At POLIS, my work has been increasingly interested in the interconnectivity of crises, which I try to approach with colleagues from POLIS and the School of Media and Communication through the polycrisis network. My work is situated at the intersections of the geographies of risk and hazards, the social studies of science and technologies, the social theory of the environment and increasingly on the political substance of rhythmic production that I blend into my understanding of the wider fabric of climate politics. I’m also a strong believer in slow and quality research.

Qualifications

• PhD Human geography (University of Edinburgh)
• MSc Environmental archaeology (University of Sheffield)
• BSc Anthropology (Universite de Montreal)