Professor Timothy Mitchell is the William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University and also teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs. He is a world-renowned political theorist and historian and a leading voice in rethinking our world’s relationship with material and technological things and resources. His areas of research include the place of colonisation in the making of modernity, the material and technical politics of the Middle East, and the role of economics and other forms of expert knowledge in the government of collective life. Much of his recent work is concerned with the ways of thinking about politics that allow material and technical things more weight than they are given in conventional political theory.
Hosted by Prof. Nick Pearce at the Institute for Policy Research (IPR), Professor Mitchell's Global Chair has provided new interdiscipinary perspectives for staff and students researching sustainability, public policy, and technology across the IPR and the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, and has deepened IPR policy research engagement with our scientists and engineers in sustainable chemistry, climate change, and energy infrastructures.
Activities at Bath
Since his appointment as Global Chair in 2018/2019, Professor Timothy Mitchell has visited Bath twice and has:
delivered two public lectures, including No Business of Yours: How the large corporation swallowed the future (15 January 2019) and Goodbye Green Growth? Why the problem of growth misidentifies our predicament (14 January 2020).
delivered a seminar on Capitalism and climate change: In conversation with Professor Timothy Mitchell, for staff and students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (15 January 2020).
engaged with students and staff across social science and STEM disciplines, including seminars and meetings with colleagues in the fields of technology and society, climate change and environmental policy, ethics of AI, and sustainable materials.
