Dr Liam Saddington

Teaching Associate in Human Geography

I am a political and environmental geographer who is interested in the geopolitics of climate change in relation to small island states.

Biography

Career

• October 2021 – September 2022: ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
• October 2020 – September 2022: Career Development Lecturer in Human Geography, Jesus College, University of Oxford
• January 2021 – August 2021: Course Director and Departmental Lecturer: MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
• January 2021 – March 2021: Lecturer in ‘Geopolitics in the Margins’, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

Qualifications

• University of Oxford, St Catherine’s College, BA Geography
• University of Oxford, St Cross College, MSc Nature, Society and Environmental Governance
• University of Oxford, St Catherine’s College, DPhil Geography and the Environment

Awards

• April 2023: “Sea level Rise and the ‘Decommissioning’ of Fairbourne: Geographies of (im)mobility and health in the Global North”, Wellcome Institutional Partnership Award, Principal-Investigator
• December 2022: “Debating Global Governance: Simulating Geopolitics in School Settings”, Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme, Principal-Investigator
• June 2022: Highly Commended in the School of Geography and the Environment Impact Awards 2022
• November 2021: “Engaging Minority Youth in Europe: Role-Playing ‘Model UNPO'”, Public Engagement with Research Seed Fund, University of Oxford, Co-Investigator
• May 2019: Phillip Fothergill Travel Award, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford
• March 2018: Dudley Stamp Memorial Awards from the Royal Geographical Society with IBG,
• September 2017-September 2020: Wilfrid Knapp Scholar and Graduate Foundation Scholar at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford
• October 2016: Undergraduate dissertation highly commended by the Political Geography Research Group
• September 2016-September 2017: Nature Society and Environmental Governance Scholarship, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
• October 2015: College Book Prize for Effort and Achievement of Research, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford
• September 2015: Gardner Prize, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford

Research

1) Climate Change, Geopolitics and Small Island States

Liam is a political and environmental geographer whose research focuses on the geopolitics of climate change concerning small island states and rising sea levels. His work explores how the relationship between territory and statehood is being reimagined in low-lying atolls in light of rising sea levels. It examines how space and time shape understandings of climate change and the implications for critical geopolitics, adaptation, and diplomacy.

Liam is interested in how different forms of knowledge are mobilised in controversies over the futures of atoll states. Specifically, he is interested in how vertical geopolitics and geographies of the ocean intersect in the construction of atoll states as “sinking islands” and resistance to this term. His DPhil (PhD) thesis was entitled “Rising Seas and Sinking Islands: The Geopolitics of Climate Change in Tuvalu and Kiribati”.

Liam’s ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship was entitled “Prefiguring the Future: Climate Adaptation and Youth Diplomacy in Tuvalu”. Building on his doctoral research, this project has two focuses. Firstly, on the role that land reclamation plays in climate change adaptation in low-lying atoll states and its broader geopolitics. Secondly, the role of youth and youthful bodies within Tuvaluan climate diplomacy.

His current research thinks about the changing role of the UK as an environmental actor in the South Pacific, in light of the “Pacific Uplift” that the UK has initiated as part of “Global Britain”. Drawing on archival materials, Liam is tracing how historical narratives of environmental degradation, population displacement and marginality in British colonies in the South Pacific influence contemporary climate discourses.

2) Simulations and Pedagogy in Political Geography

Since 2016, Liam has worked with Fiona McConnell (University of Oxford) on developing ‘Model UNPO’ teaching resources for primary and secondary schools. Supported by a University of Oxford’s Public Engagement with Research Seed Fund Award, they adapted the materials for work with diasporic communities. As part of this project, Liam has been part of the preparatory team organising a weeklong session at the Council of Europe entitled “Unrepresented Diplomats: A Study Session for European Minority Youth on Shrinking Civic Space, Political Participation and Freedom of Association”.

Within their research, Fiona and Liam are interested in bringing together literature on the geographies of education and learning with work in political geography on the nature of stateness to think about how the geographies of play can help young people to make sense of the contemporary political world. Supported by a Cambridge Humanities Research Grant, Liam is currently undertaking participant observation in primary and secondary schools.

Publications

• Saddington, L. 2023, Geopolitical Island Imaginaries in Climate and Ocean Governance: Seychelles and the Blue Economy, Geoforum
• Saddington, L. 2023, Debating Global Governance: Model UNPO Resources for engaging Key Stage 5 Students in Geopolitics, Teaching Geography, 48(1), p.14-17
• Saddington, L., 2022, COP27 points to mixed progress on climate issues, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief
• Saddington, L., 2022, COP27 climate summit looks likely to disappoint, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief
• Saddington, L., 2022, Climate goals on course to be missed, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief
• Saddington, L., 2022, Climate risks on course to intensify globally, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief.
• McConnell, F., and Saddington, L., 2021, Debating Global Governance: ‘Model UNPO’ role play. School resources hosted on RGS-IBG website.
• Saddington, L., 2021, Pressure for drastic climate action to build post-COP, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief.
• Saddington, L., 2021, Report to boost climate action calls globally, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief.
• Saddington, L.,2020, Book Review: If Everyone Returned, the Island Would Sink: Urbanisation and Migration in Vanuatu, Kirstie Petrou 2020, Berghan. Island Studies Journal,15(2),p.390-39

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Course Coordinator for Part 1A Methods in Human Geography Research
• Course Coordinator for Part 1B Living with Global Change
• Course Coordinator for Part 1B Human Geography Research and Analysis Skills

Postgraduate

• Assistant Deputy Director and Course Tutor for the Anthropocene Studies MPhil
• MPhil in Holocene Climates

External activities

• Fellow and Director of Studies for Geography (Part I), Lucy Cavendish
• Director of Studies for Geography, Gonville and Caius College
• Academic Advisor to the UNPO Youth Network