How do we study resistance without losing sight of the historical and political conditions that shape it? This question has accompanied much of my research on Palestinian resistance and remains central to my reflections on the possibilities and limitations of knowledge production in social and political psychology.

I gave this seminar in the second week (19th October 2026) of my stay at the IAS, whilst also falling in love with the beautiful city during the exceptional clear, crisp and colourful days of Autumn. Despite a lifetime working in multi-disciplinary environments, the Institute was exceptional in helping me make a flying start:

When I started as a Sir Harry Evans Fellow with Durham’s Institute of Advanced Study and Reuters, I did not expect most of my time to be spent with my head buried in academic papers about heatwaves and climate change

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Durham University’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), giving us an opportunity to look back on two decades of research, but also to think about why Institutes of Advanced Study continue to matter. Our anniversary celebrations began on the 8th October with a special public event, 'The role of interdisciplinarity in a complex world'

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the IAS, I find myself reflecting on my more than fourteen years at the Institute. My IAS journey began in January 2012, following four wonderful and rewarding years at the university’s Wolfson Research Institute. During that time, I had the privilege of working under the leadership and guidance of Professor Tim Blackman, whose support made my role both enjoyable and professionally enriching. I had arrived at Durham University in 2008

As I come to the end of my time at the IAS, I now find myself preparing to return to Sweden and the daily rhythms of life in my home institution. In doing so, I look back on what has been a hugely productive visit to Durham. While at the IAS, I have not only presented on a range of topics relating to my current work, but I have also had the opportunity to meet and discuss research with both old and new colleagues, to learn about upcoming initiatives, and to plan future collaborations.

For much of my scholarly career, I have been focused on exploring intellectual linkages and building dialogue between my area of focus – early New Persian literature – and the scholarship on adjacent areas, particularly (up till now) the classical and medieval traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and western Europe.

The term climate apartheid was initially invoked by a group of climate activists as a political slogan. They used it to convey the idea that the poorest and most marginalized sections of the world’s population bear the heaviest burden of the rich world’s carbon excess. Later, it entered academic discourse as a useful analytic for thinking about different forms of climate precarity, and especially about the centrality of race in making sense of this precarity.

I joined the IAS first as a Co-Director in January 2021, whilst COVID still locked down many countries, international travel was vastly difficult, and IAS Fellowships were held virtually. As my term as Director began, we had the lifting of those restrictions, but in their wake has come an increasingly uncertain world with challenges undreamt of only a few years ago. Yet, these uncertain times are when an IAS might shine the most.

The IAS has provided a very welcoming environment for our project Confronting Climate Apartheid: Law, Economy, Culture, which has, so far, gone to plan. Conceived as a dialogic space for thinking, and challenging, narratives of climate apartheid as they circulate through various academic and media landscapes, our project, we can safely report, is achieving what we had intended.

My recent seminar at the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) invited a simple but uncomfortable question: what do we really mean when we say livestock have “value”? Economists, veterinarians, policymakers, and farmers often use the word confidently, yet we rarely pause to unpack it.

Our IAS project has allowed us to consider a series of interconnected questions, all of which relate to how people live with, and value, cattle in eastern and southern Africa. As a team, we bring together a range of experiences and perspectives – veterinary economics, history, geography, philosophy and anthropology.