After completing a BA in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, Robert completed an MA (Distinction) and PhD in Philosophy (passed without corrections) at the University of Liverpool. He also holds a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training from Sheffield Hallam University. Robert was a Research Fellow at the University of Georgia, and has held fixed-term lecturing roles at the University of Manchester, and the University of Liverpool. Prior to pursuing postgraduate study, Robert worked in Further Education, where he led several Philosophy departments to achieve A-level results among the strongest nationally.  

Robert's research focuses mainly on how work done at the intersection of phenomenology, feminist theory, and new materialism might inform practical means of tackling the environmental crisis and other social ills. He is particularly interested in how a critical approach to environmental philosophy - by which we interrogate our most fundamental ways of perceiving and being in the more-than-human world - might license a more impactful and thoroughgoing environmental activism. In his most recent work, which draws heavily upon Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, he asks what critical environmental philosophy might have to offer climate change and sustainability education in schools. In an attempt to link his theoretical contentions with transformative change, he has collaborated with a number of organizations outside of academia, including FACT Liverpool and the Liverpool World Centre. 

Teaching Specialisms
Environmental Philosophy
Phenomenology and Existentialism
Feminist Philosophy
Political Philosophy
Postmodern Philosophy of Religion

Robert welcomes proposals for Masters or PhD-level study in any of the above, but he is particularly keen to hear about potential research projects in ecophenomenology.

Faculty Roles

Assessment Coordinator for Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies 

Level C (first year) Lead for Philosophy and Ethics

Dissertation and Research Project Coordinator for Philosophy and Ethics

Recent Publications
- 'Environmental Philosophy and Phenomenology'. Encyclopedia of Phenomenology (Dordrecht: Springer, forthcoming 2024)

- 'On the Dubious Merit of Ontologizing Bohr: Reading Barad (Diffractively) with Merleau-Ponty'. Environmental Philosophy 20 (2): 289-318 (2023)

- 'Abject Withdrawal? On the Prospect of a Nonanthropocentric Object-oriented Ontology'. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 26 (5): 20-37 (2021) 

- Becoming a Place of Unrest: Environmental Crisis and Ecophenomenological Praxis (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2021)