dr. RJ (Robert) Coates

My research and teaching interests are in political ecology, environmental governance, and disaster studies, with a special focus on urban peripheries. Much of my field research has been in Brazil, especially on the governance of floods and landslides in the context of rapid urbanisation, but also on critical geographies of citizenship and the state. I have also written on the extractive development vis-a-vis environmental protection, and I am interested in wildfire hazards and vulnerabilities in the context of land use change, economic development, and.environmental problem framing.

My PhD thesis, The Ecology of Citizenship: understanding vulnerability in urban Brazil, was awarded in 2017 at King's College London. I hold degrees in Globalization & Latin American Development (ILAS, University of London, 2011), Postcolonial Politics (Aberystwyth, 2003), and International Relations (Nottingham Trent, 2001). Prior to my PhD I worked as a programme officer, trainer, and teacher for VSO in the UK, Guyana, and Jamaica, and as a travel writer for Rough Guides and Insight Guides in the Caribbean and Brazil.

Publications:

https://research.wur.nl/en/persons/robert-coates

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Coates7