Audra Mitchell (she/her or they/them) holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science. From 2015-18, Audra held the CIGI Chair in Global Governance and Ethics at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Professor Mitchell has previously worked at the University of York, UK (2010-15) and the University of St. Andrews, UK (2009-10), and has held visiting fellowships at the Universities of Queensland (Australia) and Edinburgh (UK). Audra completed a PhD in Politics and International Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast, UK (2009).
Deeply multi-disciplinary in nature, Audra’s work has made seminal contributions in and across the fields of international studies, global and international environmental studies, international theory and philosophy, security studies, the environmental humanities, geography and other fields. For instance, it has been instrumental in shaping more-than-human discourses of international theory and ethics, and in analyzing the relationships between global structural violence and ecological collapse. Audra’s recent work engages diverse Indigenous knowledge systems to re-frame how global patterns of plant and animal extinction are understood and addressed. It has also sparked new conversations about anti-oppressive approaches to global threats and processes of futuring, foregrounding the knowledge systems of globally-marginalized communities.
Professor Mitchell is a disabled (Autistic, Dyspraxic and physically disabled) scholar, whose lived experience and commitment to intersectional disability justice informs their ongoing work on global patterns of violence, exclusion and marginalization.
