Dr Ashley H Dodsworth

I am interested in the intersection of environmental political theory and the history of political thought. I argue that environmental political theory has a long history which should be used to contextualise and develop contemporary environmental politics. My doctoral research examined the past conceptions of environmental rights, showing how a variety of historical political thinkers, from Hugo Grotius and John Locke through to Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, both conceptualised environmental rights and proposed solutions to the inherent tensions within them.

I am also interested in US politics, particularly the history of the early United States and the role that control of natural resources played in this and in the political thought of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Before joining SPAIS I was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leicester and I have also taught at SOAS. I have a BA in Combined Arts from the University of Leicester, specialising in English, History and Politics and an MA in Political Philosophy from the University of York. I returned to Leicester for my PhD in Political Theory.