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Biography / Academic Background
I received my PhD from the Queen’s University of Belfast, UK and my BAH from Queen’s University, Kingston. Prior to joining Laurier and the BSIA, I was a senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of York (2010-15), UK and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of St. Andrews (2009-10).
My research seeks to transform global ethics to respond to emerging ecological and/or technological challenges, including mass extinction, climate change and space colonization. It draws on a range of disciplines, including international studies, anthropology, philosophy, geography, and science and technology studies.
Research Interests / Ongoing Projects
I am currently working in two major areas:
Mass extinction and global ethics: Although there is increasing consensus that the Earth may be entering a ‘6th Mass Extinction’, there are no dedicated global-ethical frameworks for addressing this phenomenon. This project articulates the global-ethical significance of mass extinction from a plurality of worldviews, and seeks to expand the repertoire of responses available to humans.
Ethics at the ‘End of the World’: We are increasingly warned that a range of threats – whether global warming, nuclear terrorism, nano-technology or asteroid strikes – may bring about the ‘end of the world’. This project asks what it means to lose ‘a world’ and what kind of ethical framework can help humans to confront these threats. It examines several contemporary projects of large-scale ‘worlding’: geo-engineering, space colonization, global conservation and ‘virtual’ (e.g. algorithmic and quantum) worlding.
Selected Publications
- Mitchell, Audra. "Beyond Biodiversity and Species: Problematizing Extinction.” Theory, Culture and Society. (Accepted for publication, 2015).
- Mitchell, Audra. “Thinking Without the Circle: Marine Plastic and Global Ethics.” Political Geography, Vol. 47, pp. 77-85. (2015).
- Mitchell, Audra. “Only Human? Towards Worldly Security.” Security Dialogue, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 5-21. (2014).
- Mitchell, Audra. International Intervention in a Secular Age: Re-Enchanting Humanity? London: Routledge. (2014).
- Mitchell, Audra. “Quality/Control: International Intervention and the ‘Everyday’.” Review of International Studies, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 1623-45. (2011).
