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Staff profile

Overview

Professor Ben Anderson

Professor

Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor in the Department of Geography+44 (0) 191 33 41897

Biography

My work focuses on the affective politics of contemporary political events and conditions (including climate change and right-wing populism), and develops concepts to understand how affective lives are organised and differentiated.

Outside of Durham, I'm currently one of the co-editors of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, having previously edited The Geographical Journal. Over the years within Durham I've undertaken a wide range of citizenship roles, including most recently serving as Director of Education (2022-2025) and before that jointly leading our 2021 REF submission. 

My current research interests are threefold: 

First, understanding the affective politics of contemporary right-wing populism amid the present conjunctural crisis. I've recently published a monograph with Prof Anna J. Secor - The Politics of Feeling: Populism, Progressivism, Liberalism - (Goldsmiths University Press) - where we analyse right-wing populism, progressivism and liberalism as differentiated structures of feeling. Further details can be found here: 

The Politics of Feeling: Populism, Progressivism, Liberalism

And a table of contents here:

Table of contents

Second,  through funding from the Leverhulme Trust and with Dr Amy Robson and Prof. Lauren Rickards, I am interested in how climate change is felt in everyday life, with a particular focus on seemingly disaffected feelings such as boredom or numbness and their ambivalent relation with action. This is the latest iteration of longstanding work on how futures are encountered and governed, including work on emergency as genre, logic and technique. 

Third, I've a longstanding interest in cultural geography as intellectual-political project and scene of inquiry, including theoretical work on affect (and related concepts), materiality, and assemblage (as expressed in my book Encountering Affect: Capacities, Apparatuses, Conditions). As well as bringing affect related work and conjunctural analysis together, my work here has most recently involved developing concepts of attachment and detachment with the aim of understanding how certain 'objects' - another person, a landscape, an ideal, anything - come to matter to people. See the below papers where I develop the beginnings of this approach to cultural geography: 

Forms and scenes of attachment: A Cultural geography of promises

Affect and critique: A politics of boredom

In 2025 I curated an open access collection with Dr Vickie Zhang on the promise of cultural geography. It can be found here: 

The promise of cultural geography

Over the years, I have supervised over 30 PhD students, many of whom now have academic positions. I welcome inquiries from prospective students, particularly around the politics of affect in relation to contemporary politics or event-conditions like climate change. 

 

Research interests

  • Affect and Emotion, Matter and Materiality, Utopianism, Non-Representational Theories, Anticipatory Logics/Techniques

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

  • 'Brexit Betrayal' and other Post Crisis Affects
    Anderson, B. (2020). ’Brexit Betrayal’ and other Post Crisis Affects. In M. Kesting & S. Witzgall (Eds.), Politics of Emotion/Power of Affects. University of Chicago Press.
  • Emergency/Everyday
    Anderson, B. (2016). Emergency/Everyday. In A. Elias & J. Burges (Eds.), Time: A Vocabulary of the Present. NYU Press.
  • Atmospheric Methods
    Anderson, B., & Ash, J. (2015). Atmospheric Methods. In P. Vannini (Ed.), Non-representational methodologies: Re-Envisioning Research. Routledge.
  • Affect
    Anderson, B. (2014). Affect. In N. Castree & et al. (Eds.), The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography. Wiley.
  • Affect.
    Anderson, B. (2012). Affect. In P. Cloke, P. Crang, & M. Goodwin (Eds.), Introducing Human Geographies. Hodder Arnold.
  • Affect and Emotion.
    Anderson, B. (2012). Affect and Emotion. In N. Johnson & et al. (Eds.), A Companion to Cultural Geography.
  • Targeting Affective Life from Above: Morale and Airpower
    Anderson, B. (2012). Targeting Affective Life from Above: Morale and Airpower. In P. Adey, M. Whitehead, & A. Williams (Eds.), From Above: Verticality, Violence and Visual Culture. Hurst.
  • Recorded music and Remembering.
    Anderson, B. (2011). Recorded music and Remembering. In C. Rojek (Ed.), Popular Music. SAGE Publications.
  • The Promise of Non-Representational Theories
    Anderson, B., & Harrison, P. (2010). The Promise of Non-Representational Theories. In B. Anderson & P. Harrison (Eds.), Taking-place : non-representational theories and geography. (pp. 1-36). Ashgate Publishing.
  • Modulating the Excess of Affect: Morale in a State of "Total War".
    Anderson, B. (2010). Modulating the Excess of Affect: Morale in a State of "Total War". In M. Gregg & G. Seigworth (Eds.), The Affect Theory Reader (pp. 161-185). Duke University Press.
  • Entries for: Affect, Emotional Geographies, Non-representational Theory.
    Anderson, B. (2009). Entries for: Affect, Emotional Geographies, Non-representational Theory. In D. Gregory (Ed.), The Dictionary of Human Geography.
  • Domestic Geographies of Affect.
    Anderson, B. (2008). Domestic Geographies of Affect. In M. Greco & P. Stenner (Eds.), Emotions. A Social Science Reader. (pp. 201-205). Routledge.
  • Doreen Massey 'For Space' (2005).
    Anderson, B. (2008). Doreen Massey ’For Space’ (2005). In P. Hubbard, G. Valentine, & R. Kitchin (Eds.), Key Texts in Human Geography. SAGE Publications.

Edited book

Journal Article

Monograph

Supervision students

Cecilia Zhu

Research Postgraduate (PhD)

Hannah Morgan

Research Postgraduate (PhD)

Kelsey Giles

Lin Zhang

Research Postgraduate (PhD)

Michael Javorski