Faculty and Departmental Leads

Faculty and Departmental Leads Biographies

Simona Capisani - Faculty lead for Arts and Humanities

Simona Capisani is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Durham University. She specializes in political philosophy, ethics (normative and applied), and environmental philosophy with a focus on intersecting issues including climate justice, philosophy of immigration, gender, global, and social justice. Her current research addresses moral, political, legal, and policy questions of climate-related mobilities justice (including displacement, migration, and immobility). She also focuses on issues related to just energy transitions, climate finance, indigenous rights, and the intersection of housing justice and climate resilience.  Prior to joining the Department of Philosophy at Durham University, Simona was a Climate Futures Iniative research scholar at Princeton University in the Center for Human Values and High Meadows Environmental Institute.

Dan Lawrence

Dan Lawrence is a Professor in the Archaeology department at Durham, and a specialist in the archaeology of Southwest Asia. His research focuses on the role of climate change in the emergence, persistence and collapse of complex societies in this region, which includes some of the earliest and longest lasting cities, states and empires anywhere in the world. He is particularly interested in the lessons for our present-day challenges which can be drawn from the record of past human adaptation in the face of changing environmental circumstances. Dan also works on heritage management and protection in the MENA region, and is involved in projects which address training and skills gaps for local heritage professionals.  

Andrew Russell - Departmental lead for Anthropology

Andrew Russell is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology, specialising in Global and Planetary Health research and practice.  He is interested in the points of tension between different Sustainable Development Goals (e.g. between SDG3 ‘Good Health and Well-being’ and SDG8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’), and the relationship between these and SDG13 ‘Climate Action’.

As an anthropologist, he is interested in Framework Conventions as novel forms of social organization.  He attended the UNFCCC COP28 in Glasgow in 2021 and wrote several blog pieces comparing the organization and ways of working of this COP with the COPs he has attended through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.  He is committed to better green transport options for all.

Chris Stokes - Departmental lead for Physical Geography

Professor Chris Stokes is a glaciologist in the Department of Geography. His research is focussed on understanding how climate change is effecting glaciers around the world – from the Arctic to the Antarctic - and the associated impacts on sea level rise.