The committee.

I am a penultimate-year Classicist at Homerton College with a particular interest in reception studies. To me, Classics is all about re-examining the past from a multidisciplinary perspective to challenge our contemporary ideas about society and its future. I was drawn to CUGRIS for this very reason, as a place to consider commercial geo-economics through a broad academic lens. Having originally studied jewellery design at Central St Martins, I believe our diverse academic and personal backgrounds only enrich our perspectives, and I am passionate about encouraging this within CUGRIS. Geopolitics, and particularly its commercial implications, is fundamentally a human question: what people in businesses and governments believe, and what they choose to do. The broader our understanding of people and society, the richer our understanding of geopolitics. I know time at Cambridge is precious and I hope CUGRIS can be a place to show students that the intellectual focus you bring to your degree, regardless of your background, can have value far beyond academia. I am particularly looking forward to this year’s discussion groups as a space to explore how our seemingly ‘unrelated’ academic interests can bring new perspectives to questions about the commercial implications of geopolitics Beyond my studies I enjoy painting, particularly using unconventional media, for example my last drawing was made of post-it notes, wood and a crisp packet!

Hi I’m James, a final year Historian at Homerton College with a particular interest in the transnational spread of political ideas and movements across 20th century Europe. What fascinates me the most is looking at how fascism, whether understood as an ideology, a movement, or a set of political impulses, was able to cross borders and take hold in such varied national contexts. The question is not simply what happened, but why it happened when it did, and how a particular constellation of circumstances created the conditions for these movements to gain in popularity. That these conditions are not unique to the interwar period is what makes studying them feel so urgent. It is this interest in systemic fragility, and the many forces that produce it, that drew me to CUGRIS. I believe that ultimately geopolitics is about the same questions that preoccupy historians- asking what conditions produce instability, who bears the consequences, and what comes next. What I have come to find increasingly compelling is how those questions play out in commercial life and the decisions made by both businesses and governments navigating political risk with incomplete information. Outside of my studies I swim regularly and spend most of my free time with friends. I am looking forward to a year of discussion that genuinely benefits from the different angles and perspectives people bring to it.

I read Philosophy Tripos at King’s College. My academic interests include political philosophy (especially liberty and property, structural justice, and game theoretic problems) and mind (I am fascinated by language models). The former category is intimately tied to questions about power dynamics, incentive structures, and the structural features that sit behind them—which led me to join CUGRIS. My interest is piqued by the prospect of computationally modelling real-world events and thinking about what we can learn from these models. I have spent a summer at UCL’s Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit and would love to see what maths will carry over. Creating the Cambridge Geopolitical Risk Journal with the brilliant Sanna, James, and Connie will be an incredibly rewarding (albeit challenging!) task and I am looking forward to working on this together, using what I have learnt on the in-house editorial board of The Wilberforce Society. Otherwise, I love art and art history, I am an eager (and sometimes competent) swimmer, and my favourite artists include Blood Orange, M.I.A, and Skepta.

Hi, I’m Connie, a third year Natural Scientist at Homerton. I’m particularly interested in how climate change is reshaping international politics and law, especially the mismatch in timescales and the geographic asymmetry between where emissions originate and where their consequences land. Increasingly these questions are provoking novel legal disputes, forcing courts to decide what states actually owe one another. That is what drew me to CUGRIS. Climate risk is often filed under long-horizon uncertainty, but for businesses and governments making decisions with incomplete information, it is already shaping where they build, insure, and invest. I’m really excited for the year ahead, and to be working with such a great team to grow CUGRIS. Outside of academics, I’m a college rower, I love live music and adventure sports!

Hi! I'm Noah, a final year History and Politics student at Homerton college. I’m especially interested in how we can understand our current global era of polycrisis through the lens of material elements. As the choices of public and private agents are increasingly affected by environmental instabilities, we will have to reckon with the inadequacies of financial architectures to factor in those concrete risks. How can geopolitical actors coordinate effectively when the existing structures for doing so fail to adapt? I think that this relates to important issues around how we might better mediate competing claims to ‘real’ resources, from energy to data, which are crucially entangled with the transnational nature of modern businesses. The opportunity to break down questions like these in a collaborative setting is why I am so excited to take on a role at CUGRIS, and am keen to help make it a space that can cultivate the diversity of interests students bring to it. Outside my studies, I enjoy running, rock climbing, and playing guitar!