Dr Peter Gardner
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I am a senior lecturer in sociology, and have been working in the department since 2019. I am a passionate environmental sociologist, whose research is dedicated to furthering understanding and practices around climate and ecological catastophe, as well as social movement and protest responses to it. I believe sociology can offer important insights into ecological questions, revealing the systemic inequalities and power structures at play in environmental issues.

I grew up in the north of Ireland at the tail end of the region's civil war. After completing a BA in Economic and Social Studies and MPhil in Race, Ethnicity, Conflict at Trinity College Dublin, I undertook a PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, exploring civil conflict, the politics of ethnicity, and peacebuilding practices. Recognising the global scale of the climate crisis, in 2020 I moved to research environmental sociology and associated social movements. 

Departmental roles

Chair of Postgraduate Research

Research

Overview

My research focuses on the sociology of climate and ecological breakdown, the transnational spread of environmental protest, and the criminalisation and political repression of climate activists. Key recent projects have included:

• Spreading rebellion: A study of the transnational spread and localisation of climate activism
• Criminalising climate activism: An examination of the impact of criminalisation and state repression of climate activism and activists in the UK
• Symbolic objects in contentious politics: The role of objects in protest, resistance, and revolution
• Multispecies justice and more-than-human methods

Supervision

Current PhD Candidates

• Harry Strange (Pro-Palestine encampments on university campuses)
• Haddy Njie (The role of courage in social movements)
• Fajer Almulaifi (Climate commissions, citizens' assemblies and civil society in Leeds, Belfast, and Edinburgh)
• Paria Rezayi (Resistance and revolution in Iran: 1979 and 2022)
• Jennifer Brunner (The return of colonially looted museum objects)
• Stephanie Richards (British Caribbean women's experiences of empowerment and oppression)

Completed PhDs

• Adam Dinsmore (Perspectives on the "elite" in British grassroots party politics)
• Catherine Stinton (Gender and race in the British Far Right movement) 

Publications

Selected publications

• Müller T and Gardner P (2026) Transboundary-Spanning in Social Movements: Organizational Structure and Antiracism in the US Extinction Rebellion Movement, Sociological Forum. DOI: 10.1111/socf.70080. 
• Davies-Rommetveit, S., Douch, J., Gardner, P., Sach, A.A., Thomas-Walters, L. and Tausch, N., 2026. Emotional responses to state repression predict collective climate action intentions. Nature Climate Change, 16(3), pp.281-287. Doi: 10.1038/s41558-026-02570-8.
• Gardner P and Müller T (2025) Sociology amid Climate Breakdown: A Call for Systemic Pedagogical Transformation, Sociology, doi: 10.1177/00380385251388552.
• Gardner P, Williams S and Macdonald A (2024) Glued on for the grandkids: The gendered politics of care in the global environmental movement, Sociology Compass 18(1): 1-14.
• Gardner P, O’Brien T, Carvalho T & Adekola O (2024) PROFILE: Extinction Rebellion in The Gambia, Social Movement Studies 23(1): 122-128.
• Gardner P, O’Brien T, Carvalho T & Adekola O (2023) Confronting the Climate Crisis in Africa: The Just Transition Movement and Extinction Rebellion in Nigeria and South Africa, Review of African Political Economy 50(177-178): 475-490.
• Gardner P and Abrams B (2023) Resistance With and Against Symbolic Objects: Material targets of resistance and symbolic recruitment in the American Revolution, the anti-Apartheid movement, and Just Stop Oil protests, Journal of Resistance Studies 9(2): 78-112.
• Gardner P, Carvalho T and Valenstain M (2022) Spreading Rebellion?: The rise of Extinction Rebellion Chapters across the world, Environmental Sociology 8(4): 424-435.

Teaching

Other teaching

My teaching is primarily focused on political and environmental sociology and green criminology, including state repression in civil society, forms of resistance, environmental social movements and protest, imperialism and colonialism, and green social theory. 

External activities

Editorial duties

• Deputy Chief Editor of Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest