Dr. Rob Nixon

Biography

Rob Nixon is the Thomas Currie C. Barron Family Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and primarily focuses on environmental humanities. Before joining Princeton in 2015, Nixon held the Rachel Carson Professorship in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of four notable books: London Calling: V.S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin; Homelands, Harlem Hollywood: South African Culture in the World; Dreambirds: Natural History Fantasy; and Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, which has received multiple prestigious awards. Nixon has been a frequent contributor to prominent periodicals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Guardian, addressing themes in environmental studies and postcolonial studies. His work seeks to bridge the gap between scholarly work and public discourse on environmental issues, particularly those affecting the global South. He is actively involved in teaching environmental humanities, aiming to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and new narrative forms to contend with pressing environmental challenges. Nixon has received several fellowships, including a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation Peace and Security Fellowship. He continues to explore themes of environmental justice and the Anthropocene in his current projects.

Research Interests

Experience