Elena Kavanagh

Dr Elena Kavanagh

Small Group Project

After Sendai: Governing Global Catastrophic Risks in the Emerging Global Interregnum

This project develops an interdisciplinary research agenda for governing Global catastrophic risks (GCRs) under conditions of systemic international transition. It convenes a small group of researchers at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge, to advance theoretical and empirical approaches to cooperation, legitimacy, and coordination during what can be understood as a global interregnum — a period marked by institutional inertia, contested authority, and heightened uncertainty. Building on an international workshop held in Cambridge in May 2026 and an associated forthcoming peer-reviewed special issue on catastrophic risk and global political change, the project will establish an epistemic network of scholars and practitioners — the After Sendai Risk Network (ASRN) — over a twelve-month period.

More information

Areas of interest

Indigenous People Human Rights Self-Determination Risk Governance Arctic International Law Global Governance Indigenous Rights International Relations

Cohort

FG12

Biography

Elena is a researcher specialising in Indigenous peoples’ rights and self-determination. Based at the School of Law at University College Cork, Ireland, her current work focuses on integrating Indigenous knowledge into global catastrophic risk governance. During her doctoral studies at the same university, she examined the language rights of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic. Prior to her doctoral research, Elena conducted studies on Arctic governance and Indigenous rights at the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland in Finland and Nord University in Norway.

Her areas of expertise include international law, global governance, Indigenous rights, human rights, and international relations. In addition to her academic work, Elena serves as an Advisor to the Board of the Arctic Youth Network (which spans Canada, the US, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia). She is also a researcher with the Ad-hoc Group 1 at the UNESCO International Decade for Indigenous Languages 2022-2032 and a co-founder of APECS-Ireland

Biographical details correct as of 22.09.26