Professor Ksenia Chmutina – dubbed “the academic nomad who averts disasters” – is an expert in Disaster Studies who joined Loughborough University in 2011 as a Research Associate. She is Director of EDI for her School and the University’s Special Envoy for East Asia. Prior to this, she gained her PhD at The University of Nottingham, and lived and studied in Russia and China.

Ksenia’s research focuses on the processes of disaster risk creation in the context of neoliberalism, showing how disasters unveil inequalities and injustices ingrained in our society, and calls for change through solidarity and scholarly activism.

Her work brings together critical theory and participatory methodologies to generate transdisciplinary understanding of disasters as socio-political processes. Over the past decade, she has been fortunate to work in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Georgia, and the Caribbean, alongside academics, artists, policymakers, NGOs and, most importantly, marginalised communities.

Central to Ksenia’s activity is science communication – she is co-host of the popular podcast Disasters: Deconstructed, makes regular media appearances and writes widely for the popular press.