Professor Deborah Dixon

Research interests:

Broadly, my work addresses the field of art/science, and the manner in which research across academia has addressed the making and remaking of environment/society relations. More pertinently for SAGES, my recent research and teaching has centered on an evaluation of the emergence, character, and scope of geoengineering efforts to address climate change. With an eye on the future, geoengineering is nevertheless very much of the present, as many efforts are being created in the laboratory, while
others have reached experimental stages. A critical debate has emerged about whether these represent viable and appropriate solutions to climate change, or significant and potentially damaging socio-technical interventions. I contribute to this debate by addressing questions of geopolitics, governance, and aesthetics associated with manipulations of the earth’s climate system. Specifically, I address how a lack of engagement between geoengineering science with the fields of social science and humanities has
caused a dearth of understanding about the politics and aesthetics already embedded in geoengineering. My research and teaching asks:

(1) What are the differing logics, philosophies and ethics underlying diverse geoengineering technologies and experiments, and how have these shaped the selection of solutions?
(2) How can rapidly-emerging geoengineering technologies and experiments be governed by existing regimes of law and policy, and what new modes of geopolitics and citizenship does geoengineering anticipate/require?
(3) How can humanities-based research draw out the imaginaries, affects, and aesthetics animating and prompted by geoengineering ideas and practice, allow for a reflexive appraisal of research practice, and shape a productive knowledge exchange between the humanities, social and the earth sciences, and policy arenas?